Magnetic tunnel junctions with controlled magnetic response
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United States of America Patent
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Jul 22, 1997
Grant Date -
N/A
app pub date -
Mar 18, 1996
filing date -
Mar 18, 1996
priority date (Note) -
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status (Latency Note)
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Abstract
A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device is usable as a magnetic field sensor or as a memory cell in a magnetic random access (MRAM) array. The MTJ device has a 'pinned' ferromagnetic layer whose magnetization is oriented in the plane of the layer but is fixed so as to not be able to rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field in the range of interest, a 'free' ferromagnetic layer whose magnetization is able to be rotated in the plane of the layer relative to the fixed magnetization of the pinned ferromagnetic layer, and an insulating tunnel barrier layer located between and in contact with both ferromagnetic layers. The pinned ferromagnetic layer is pinned by interfacial exchange coupling with an adjacent antiferromagnetic layer. The amount of tunneling current that flows perpendicularly through the two ferromagnetic layers and the intermediate tunnel barrier layer depends on the relative magnetization directions of the two ferromagnetic layers. The ferromagnetic layers are formed in two separate spaced-apart planes that do not overlap in the region of the tunnel barrier layer, thereby eliminating any extraneous magnetic poles.
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- 323 Citation Count
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- 99.62 % this patent is cited more than
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