A 10 ns read and write non-volatile memory array using a magnetic tunnel junction and FET switch in each cell

Author

Scheuerlein, R. ; Gallagher, W. ; Parkin, S. ; Lee, A. ; Ray, S. ; Robertazzi, R. ; Reohr, W.

Author_Institution

IBM Almaden Res. Center, San Jose, CA, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

9-9 Feb. 2000

Firstpage

128

Lastpage

129

Abstract

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) offers an alternative approach to fast low-power non-volatile VLSI memory. MRAM has been pursued for more than 10 years as a robust non-volatile memory for space applications. The magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) MRAM is dramatically different and achieves four orders of magnitude better bandwidth to sense power ratio by utilizing a high resistance and high magneto-resistance (MR) MTJ and including a FET switch in each cell. Non-volatile storage and 10 ns performance are demonstrated in 1 kb arrays. Read and write on-chip power at 2.5 V and 100 MHz are 5 mW and 40 mW respectively.

Keywords

low-power electronics; magnetic storage; magnetoresistive devices; random-access storage; tunnelling; 1 kbit; 10 ns; 100 MHz; 2.5 V; 40 mW; 5 mW; FET switch; low-power VLSI; magnetic random access memory; magnetic tunnel junction; magnetoresistance; nonvolatile memory array; CMOS technology; Capacitance; Circuits; FETs; Magnetic fields; Magnetic switching; Magnetic tunneling; Nonvolatile memory; Random access memory; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2000. Digest of Technical Papers. ISSCC. 2000 IEEE International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

ISSN

0193-6530

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5853-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISSCC.2000.839717

Filename

839717