A study of dielectric breakdown mechanism in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junction

Author

Yoshida, Chikako ; Kurasawa, Masaki ; Lee, Young Min ; Tsunoda, Koji ; Aoki, Masaki ; Sugiyama, Yoshihiro

Author_Institution

Syst. LSI Dev. Labs., Fujitsu Ltd., Atsugi, Japan

fYear

2009

fDate

26-30 April 2009

Firstpage

139

Lastpage

142

Abstract

We examined the breakdown characteristics of a 1-nm-thick MgO barrier by measuring the time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) and conducting atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) observation. We found that two different local conduction modes, the percolation path and Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling, contribute to dielectric breakdown. Furthermore, the operating voltage of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) for maintaining reliability over ten years against dielectric breakdown was discussed.

Keywords

atomic force microscopy; boron compounds; cobalt compounds; electric breakdown; iron compounds; magnetic tunnelling; percolation; reliability; CAFM; CoFeB-MgO-CoFeB; Fowler-Nordheim tunneling; TDDB; conducting atomic force microscopy; dielectric breakdown mechanism; local conduction modes; magnetic tunnel junction; percolation path; reliability maintainance; size 1 nm; Atomic force microscopy; Atomic measurements; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric measurements; Electrodes; Force measurement; Laboratories; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic tunneling; Time measurement; C-AFM; MTJ; MgO barrier; TDDB;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium, 2009 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Montreal, QC

ISSN

1541-7026

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2888-5

Electronic_ISBN

1541-7026

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IRPS.2009.5173239

Filename

5173239