Stt-mram cell structure incorporating piezoelectric stress material
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsJun Liu, Steve Kramer, Gurtej Sandhu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A magnetic memory cell including a piezoelectric material, and methods of operating the memory cell are provided. The memory cell includes a stack, and the piezoelectric material may be formed as a layer in the stack or adjacent the layers of the cell stack. The piezoelectric material may be used to induce a transient stress during programming of the memory cell to reduce the critical switching current of the memory cell.
Claims20
A method for reducing a critical switching current density of a memory cell during operation comprising:
- generating a transient stress in a free ferromagnetic layer of the memory cell by generating a parasitic electric field to activate a piezoelectric material of the memory cell.
A method for reducing a critical switching current density of a memory cell during operation comprising:
- generating a transient stress in a free ferromagnetic layer of the memory cell by applying a voltage to a piezoelectric material of the memory cell.
A method for reducing a critical switching current density of a memory cell during operation comprising:
- generating a voltage across a memory cell stack;
- generating a transient stress from a piezoelectric material of the memory cell stack to a free layer of the memory cell stack;
- and
- lowering the energy barrier of the free layer for magnetization reversal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.