Sub-3 ns pulse with sub-100 µA switching of 1x–2x nm perpendicular MTJ for high-performance embedded STT-MRAM towards sub-20 nm CMOS

A novel perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is developed that can be switched using pulse widths of around 1 ns and currents of less than 100 μA. This paper presents the first demonstration in novel achievement of fast switching, low power operation and size scalability of write current down to 16 nm diameter MTJ. This MTJ satisfies retention which is typically required in cache memory. Measurement results show that our proposed MTJ can open a path to embedded STT-MRAM in sub-20 nm CMOS generation.