MAGNETIC TUNNEL JUNCTION WITH ANISOTROPY OF PERPENDICULAR FORM AND VARIABILITY, MEMORY POINT AND LOGICAL ELEMENT COMPRISING THE MAGNETIC TUNNEL JUNCTION, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE MAGNETIC TUNNEL JUNCTION

• US 20190326508A1
• Filed: 02/22/2019
• Published: 10/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation), Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, Institut Polytechnique De Grenoble
• Original Assignee: Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique (AES Corporation), Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, Institut Polytechnique De Grenoble
• Inventors: PERRISSIN-FABERT, Nicolas, DIENY, Bernard, PREJBEANU, Lucian, SOUSA, Ricardo
• Granted Patent: US 10,930,841 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/161 details concerning the memory cell structure, e.g. the layers of the ferromagnetic memory cell
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 14/0081 and the nonvolatile element is a magnetic RAM [MRAM] element or ferromagnetic cell
• CPC Class Codes: H10B 61/22 of the field-effect transistor [FET] type
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 50/01 Manufacture or treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 50/10 Magnetoresistive devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 50/80 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 50/85 Magnetic active materials

Abstract

A magnetic tunnel junction with out-of-plane magnetisation includes a storage layer; a reference layer; a tunnel barrier layer, the two magnetisation states of the storage layer being separated by an energy barrier, the magnetic tunnel junction having a thermal stability factor dependent on the energy barrier and on the temperature of use of the magnetic tunnel junction. The storage layer has a thickness comprised between 0.5 times and 8 times a characteristic dimension of a planar section of the tunnel junction; the composition and the thickness of the storage layer are chosen such that the absolute value of the derivative of the thermal stability factor compared to a characteristic dimension of a planar section of the tunnel junction is less than 10 nm⁻¹.

Claims

1. Magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type comprising:

an electrical contact layer,

a magnetic tunnel junction with out-of-plane magnetisation including;

a storage layer having a magnetisation switchable between two magnetisation states normal to the plane of the layer;

a reference layer having a fixed magnetisation and normal to the plane of the reference layer;

a tunnel barrier layer separating the storage layer and the reference layer;

a metal line parallel to the plane of the layers and in contact with the storage layer including at least one second electrical contact,

the two magnetisation states of the storage layer being separated by an energy barrier, said magnetic tunnel junction having a thermal stability factor dependent on the energy barrier and on the temperature of use of the magnetic tunnel junction, wherein;

the storage layer has a thickness comprised between 0.5 times and 8 times a characteristic dimension of a planar section of the tunnel junction;

a composition and a thickness of the storage layer are chosen such that the absolute value of the derivative of the thermal stability factor compared to a characteristic dimension of a planar section of the tunnel junction is less than 10 nm<sup>−

1</sup>, the derivative of the thermal stability factor being calculated at a temperature T_m, the temperature T_m being the average temperature of use of the magnetic tunnel junction.

2. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein the metallic line includes a third electrical contact.

3. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein its planar section is circular or quasi-circular and wherein said characteristic dimension is the diameter of the section.

4. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 3, wherein the diameter is less than 50 nm.

5. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein the storage layer is constituted of a homogeneous magnetic material.

6. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein the storage layer includes an assembly of magnetic and non-magnetic layers.

7. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 6, wherein the storage layer includes at least one magnetic layer containing an amorphising element and one or more layers able to absorb the amorphising element during post-deposition annealing.

8. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 6, wherein the storage layer includes at least two magnetic materials, of which a first material close to the tunnel barrier is able to provide a strong tunnel magnetoresistance and a second material has a low Gilbert dampening.

9. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein:

the tunnel barrier is made of MgO, AlOx, AlN, SrTiO₃, HfOx or any other insulating oxide or nitride;

the storage layer comprises a stack of different layers including;

a layer made of alloy of cobalt, iron and boron of thickness between 1 and 4 nm in contact with the tunnel barrier;

a layer of a material, able to absorb boron such as Ta, Mo or W at the moment of post-deposition annealing, of 0.2 to 0.4 nm thickness,

a magnetic layer with low Gilbert dampening.

10. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein the storage layer is inserted between two tunnel barriers.

11. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein:

the storage layer has a thickness comprised between 0.8 and 8 times a characteristic dimension of a planar section of the tunnel junction;

the contribution to the energy barrier due to the shape anisotropy of the storage layer is at least two times greater than the contributions to the energy barrier of interfacial origin.

14. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 7, wherein the amorphising element is boron.

15. The magnetic random access memory point of SOT-MRAM type according to claim 1, wherein the contribution to the energy barrier due to the shape anisotropy of the storage layer is at least four times greater than the contributions to the energy barrier of interfacial origin.

12. Method for manufacturing a magnetic tunnel junction with out-of-plane magnetisation including a storage layer having a magnetisation switchable between two magnetisation states normal to the plane of the layer, the two magnetisation states of the storage layer being separated by an energy barrier, said storage layer having a thickness comprised between 0.5 times and 8 times a characteristic dimension D of a planar section of the tunnel junction, said magnetic tunnel junction having a thermal stability factor Δ

dependent on the energy barrier and on the average temperature of use of the magnetic tunnel junction T, said method comprising;

calculating the optimal thickness L^opti of the storage layer using the formula;

13. Method for manufacturing a magnetic tunnel junction with out-of-plane magnetisation according to claim 12, wherein the storage layer includes an interface layer made of FeCoB alloy and a volume layer of thickness L^FM and wherein method further includes:

calculating the optimal thickness (L^{FM opti}) and the optimal magnetisation (M_s^{FM opti}) of the volume layer using the formula;