MAGNETIC IMMUNITY AND THERMAL STABILITY ASSESSMENT OF STT-MRAM DEVICES

Abstract

As one of the most promising non-volatile memory technologies, industrial development of spin-transfer torque magnetic random-access memory (STT-MRAM) is growing at an extremely fast pace. Numerous chip-level demonstrations and early risk production have shown STT-MRAM capability in becoming a mainstream embedded memory technology. However, before STT-MRAM can reach peak mainstream adoption, the industry must tackle several issues. Mainly p-MTJ annealing robustness with compliance to back-end-of-line processing standards. Solder reflow process of temperatures up to 260ºC and the operation stability in temperature range of –40ºC to 125ºC and in the presence of stray magnetic fields. Hence, there is a need to characterize and evaluate the thermal stability and magnetic immunity of STT-MRAM devices as they go from technology conceptualization phase to very large-scale integration phase. This thesis aims to provide a suitable framework for industrial adoption to evaluate and quantity the thermal stability and magnetic immunity of the STT-MRAM devices.