DocumentCode :
3604086
Title :
Magnetoelectric Random Access Memory-Based Circuit Design by Using Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Anisotropy in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Author :
Wang, Kang L. ; Hochul Lee ; Amiri, Pedram Khalili
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Volume :
14
Issue :
6
fYear :
2015
Firstpage :
992
Lastpage :
997
Abstract :
We introduce a magnetoelectric junction driven by voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA-MEJ) as a building block for a range of low-power memory applications. We present and discuss specifically two applications, magnetoelectric random access memory (MeRAM) and ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM). The MEJ differs from a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) in that electric field is used to induce switching in lieu of substantial current flow in MTJ. Electric field control of magnetism can dramatically enhance the performance of magnetic memory devices in terms of switching energy efficiency and switching speed. The development of such an energy-efficient and ultrafast memory has a potential to change the paradigm of a hierarchical memory system in the conventional computer architecture. By combining speed, low power, and high density, electric-field-controlled magnetic memory merges features of multiple separate memory technologies used in today´s memory hierarchy. The performance of a VCMA-MEJs-based MeRAM, especially in the case of one access transistor associated with one MEJ (1T-1R) structure, is evaluated by comparing it with that of phase-change RAM, resistive RAM, and spin transfer torque RAM. MeRAM can achieve ultrafast switching (<;1 ns), low switching energy (~1 fJ), and compact cell size of 6 F2 with a shared source region, as well as nonvolatility. For another application, we propose the VCMA-MEJ-based TCAM, which will be referred to as MeTCAM, consisting of 4T-2MEJs. Since MeTCAM fully exploits the low power and high density features of the VCMA effect both in write and search operation modes, it obtains a fast searching speed (0.2 ns) with the smallest cell area (44 F2) compared to previous works.
Keywords :
MRAM devices; content-addressable storage; electric fields; energy conservation; low-power electronics; magnetic tunnelling; magnetoelectronics; voltage control; MTJ; MeRAM; MeTCAM; VCMA-MEJ; access transistor; circuit design; electric-field-controlled magnetic memory; energy-efficient memory; hierarchical memory system; low-power memory applications; magnetic memory devices; magnetic tunnel junctions; magnetoelectric junction; magnetoelectric random access memory; memory hierarchy; memory technologies; phase-change RAM; resistive RAM; spin transfer torque RAM; switching energy efficiency; switching speed; ternary content-addressable memory; ultrafast memory; voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy; Associative memory; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic tunneling; Memory architecture; Nonvolatile memory; Phase change random access memory; Non-volatile memory; magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ); magnetoelectric junction (MEJ); magnetoelectric random access memory (MeRAM); non-volatile memory; ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM); voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA);
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Nanotechnology, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
1536-125X
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TNANO.2015.2462337
Filename :
7172542
Link To Document :
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