Evaluating the Performances of the Ultralow Power Magnetoelectric Random Access Memory With a Physics-Based Compact Model of the Antiferromagnet/Ferromagnet Bilayer

Voltage-controlled spintronic devices are considered promising candidates for low-power applications due to the nonvolatility and the elimination of the Joule heating energy. Recently, experiments have demonstrated the voltage-controlled magnetization switching in the bismuth ferrite (BFO)/CoFe heterojunction that can achieve 180° switching at room temperature. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the ferroelectric coercive voltage of the La-doped BFO can be as low as 0.2 V by tuning the doping concentration of La and choosing a thinner BFO layer. To evaluate the potential performance of the magnetoelectric magnetic random access memory (ME-MRAM) using the BFO/CoFe heterojunction, we first build a physics-based compact model of the antiferromagnet/ferromagnet (AFM/FM) bilayer. The results from our circuit-compatible model match well with the micromagnetic simulations on the dynamics of the order parameters in both the AFM and FM layers. Next, we simulate the read and write performances of ME-MRAM using the compact model we have developed. Our results show that the write energy of the ME-MRAM can be as low as a few fJ per bit and the layout area is ~20 F
²
, which is more energy and area efficient compared to SRAM and other spintronic memory candidates.