Energy Efficient Switching In Magnetic Tunnel Junctions With An Antiferromagnetic Barrier

This invention is a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) design to realize more efficient switching. This design includes the use of an antiferromagnetic layer.

 

Background:

Spintronics represents a promising solution to address the problem of greatly increased power consumption in CMOS transistors for memory and logic applications. Storing information as spin, instead of charge, spintronics offers a unique route to eliminate energy waste in the stand-by state. A large part of the present spintronics research focuses on reducing the dynamic power consumption and increasing the on/off ratio (magnetoresistance) in various structures. Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have been arguably the most important building blocks in spintronic technology.  There is a need for advanced MTJs that dramatically reduce switching energy while maintaining a reasonably high tunneling magnetoresistance and strong thermal stability at room temperature

 

Applications:

  • Magnetic hard disk drives
  • Random access memories
  • Spin logic cell
  • Sensors
  • Microwave oscillators
  • Amplifiers

 

Advantages:

  • Energy efficient MTJ switching for spintronics computing
Patent Information: