Area-Efficient SOT-MRAM With a Schottky Diode

作者：Seo Yeongkyo^*; Kwon Kon Woo; Roy Kaushik

来源：IEEE Electron Device Letters, 2016, 37(8): 982-985.

DOI：10.1109/LED.2016.2578959

• Heavy metal
• high density
• magnetic memory
• magnetic tunnel junction
• Schottky diode
• spin-orbit torque
• spin-transfer torque

This letter presents a spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) for high-density, reliable, and energy-efficient on-chip memory application. Unlike the conventional SOT-MRAM requiring two access transistors, the proposed MRAM uses only one access transistor along with a Schottky diode in order to achieve high integration density while maintaining the advantages of SOT-MRAM, such as low write energy and enhanced reliability of magnetic tunnel junction. The Schottky diode is forward-biased during read, whereas it is reverse-biased during write to prevent sneak current paths. Our simulation results show that the proposed MRAM can achieve 30% and 50% reduction in bit-cell area in comparison to conventional spin-transfer torque MRAM (STT-MRAM) and SOT-MRAM, respectively, and similar to 2.5x improvement in write power compared with the STT-MRAM.

• 出版日期2016-8