Modeling and Evaluation of Sub-10-nm Shape Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Abstract

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with low switching current, high thermal stability, and small device size are strongly preferred for low-power, high-reliability, and high-density spintronic memory and logic applications. The research of MTJs from shape in-plane magnetic anisotropy to interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (i-PMA) has successfully paved the way down to 20-nm scale, below which, however, the i-PMA approach reaches a physical limit in sustaining sufficient thermal stability while achieving low-power spin transfer torque switching. Recently, studies have been reported a new approach to pave the way toward sub-10-nm MTJs satisfying the requirements by revisiting shape perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (s-PMA). In this paper, we present a compact model of the sub-10-nm s-PMA MTJ device, which captures both the static and dynamic physical behaviors. This model is SPICE-compatible for hybrid MTJ/CMOS circuit designs. This paper is expected to push forward the development of sub-10-nm-scale MTJ-based spintronic memory and logic circuits.