Magnetic Random Access Memory(MRAM) Device Development

摘要

The recent discovery of materials that have anomalous magneto-resistive properties has generated renewed commercial interest in metal-based fast memory storage as an alternative to the currently used semiconductor-based devices. One particularly promising ternary alloy, fabricated at LLNL, appeared to have exceptional field response. This proposal extended the investigation of this class of materials by examining the scaling properties of test structures made from this material that could definitively verify the preliminary observations of high field sensitivity. Although the expected scaling was observed, technical issues, such as excessive oxidation, prevented a definitive assessment of the effect. Despite the difficulties encountered, several test structures demonstrated superior performance in a 'spin-valve' configuration that might have applications for very high density recording heads.