Thermal-assisted switching

Thermal-assisted switching (TAS)[1] is a second-generation approaches to magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) currently being developed. A few different designs have been proposed, but all rely on the idea of reducing the required switching fields by heating.[2] The first design's cell, which was proposed by James M. Daughton and co-workers, had a heating element, an MRAM bit, an orthogonal digit line,[2] and used a low-Curie point ferromagnetic material as the storage layer.[3] In a second and more-promising design, which was developed by the Spintec Laboratory (France) and subsequently licensed to Crocus Technology, the storage layer is made of a ferromagnetic and an antiferromagnetic layer. When the cell is heated by flowing a heating current through the junction and the temperature exceeds the "blocking temperature" (T_b), the ferromagnetic layer is freed, and the data is written by application of a magnetic field while cooling down.[2] When idle, the cell's temperature is below the blocking temperature and much more stable.[4]

This approach offers multiple advantages over previous MRAM technologies:[3]

1. Because the write selection is temperature-driven, it eliminates write-selectivity problems;
2. It is a low-power approach as only one magnetic field is required to write, and because the cell stability and magnetic susceptibility are decoupled as a result of the introduction of the blocking temperature; and
3. It is thermally stable due to the exchange bias of the storage layer.