Deterministic write concept unveiled by imec

摘要

At the 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, imec has presented a deterministic write scheme for voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) magnetic random access memories (MRAMs), removing the need for pre-reading the device before writing. According to imec, this will significantly improve the write duty cycle of the memory, enabling ns-scale write speeds. Imec also demonstrated a manufacturable solution for external-field-free VCMA switching operation. Both innovations address fundamental write operation challenges for VCMA MRAMs, and could help to make them viable solution for future high-performance low-power memory applications. Voltage-controlled MRAM operation has recently been introduced to bring down the power consumption of spin-transfer-torque MRAM (STT-MRAM) devices - a class of non-volatile, high-density, high-speed memories. While writing STT-MRAM memory cells is performed by means of a current (injected perpendicular into a magnetic tunnel junction), VCMA MRAM uses an electric field (hence, a voltage) for its write operation - this process is far less energy consuming.