Magnetic tunnel junction structures and methods of fabrication
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsKyu-Mann Lee, Hyun-Jo Kim, Jeong-Hee Park, Tae-Wan Kim, I-Hun Song, Seok-Jae Chung
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Abstract
A method for forming an MTJ structure suitable for use in a MRAM device having a bottom electrode including a layer of platinum, ruthenium, iridium, rhodium, osmium, palladium or their oxides and having reduced surface roughness to improve the hysteresis loop characteristics of the resulting MTJ structure. The bottom electrode layer may also combine the functions of both the seeding layer and bottom electrode of the conventional two-layer structure, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process.
Claims28
A magnetic random access memory (MRAM) having a stacked magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure comprising:
- a bottom electrode layer, the bottom electrode having an as formed RMS surface roughness of less than 5 Å.
A stacked magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure comprising:
- a bottom electrode layer;
- and
- a pinning layer or a pinned layer;
- wherein the bottom electrode layer comprises a substantially uniform material extending between and directly contacting an insulating layer and the pinning layer or the pinned layer;
- and further wherein
- the bottom electrode layer has an as-formed RMS surface roughness of less than 5 Å.
A method of forming a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) having a stacked magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure comprising:
- forming an insulating layer;
- forming a bottom electrode layer on the insulating layer, the bottom electrode layer having an as-formed RMS surface roughness of less than 5 Å;
- and
- completing the MTJ structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.