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US 2023/0413683 A1Published application
Magnetic tunnel junction structures and related methods
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsMingyuan SONG, Shy-Jay LIN
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Abstract
The disclosure is directed to spin-orbit torque (“SOT”) magnetoresistive random-access memory (“MRAM”) (“SOT-MRAM”) structures and methods. A SOT channel of the SOT-MRAM includes multiple heavy metal layers and one or more dielectric dusting layers each sandwiched between two adjacent heavy metal layers. The dielectric dusting layers each include discrete molecules or discrete molecule clusters of a dielectric material scattered in or adjacent to an interface between two adjacent heavy metal layers.
Claims20
A structure, comprising:
- a first heavy metal layer over a substrate;
- a dielectric material over the first heavy metal layer;
- a second heavy metal layer over the dielectric material and the first heavy metal layer, wherein one or more of the first heavy metal layer or the second heavy metal layer include diffused elements of the dielectric material;
- and
- a magnetic tunnel junction structure vertically adjacent to one of the first heavy metal layer or the second heavy metal layer, the magnetic tunnel junction structure including a reference layer, a free layer and a tunneling barrier layer vertically between the reference layer and the free layer, and the magnetic tunnel junction structure being separate from each of the first heavy metal layer, the dielectric material, and the second heavy metal layer.
2 more elements
A structure, comprising:
- a spin-orbit torque structure over a substrate, the spin-orbit torque layer including a vertical stack of a first heavy metal layer, a second heavy metal layer, and a third heavy metal layer, a first plurality of molecules of a dielectric material randomly distributed in-plane on a first interface between the first heavy metal layer and the second heavy metal layer, and a second plurality of molecules of the dielectric material randomly distributed in-plane on a second interface between the second heavy metal layer and the third heavy metal layer;
- and
- a magnetic tunnel junction structure vertically adjacent to the spin-orbit torque structure, the magnetic tunnel junction structure including a reference layer, a free layer and a tunneling barrier layer vertically between the reference layer and the free layer, and the free layer being closer to the spin-orbit torque layer than the reference layer.
A device, comprising:
- a transistor over a substrate, the transistor having a first source or drain terminal, a second source or drain terminal and a gate terminal;
- a magnetoresistive random access memory cell over the transistor, the magnetoresistive random access memory cell including a magnetic tunnel junction structure and a spin-orbit torque structure adjacent to the magnetic tunnel junction structure;
- a write signal line coupled to the gate terminal;
- a first current node coupled to the first source or drain terminal;
- and
- a second current node coupled to a first end of the spin-orbit torque structure, a second end of the spin-orbit torque structure coupled to the second source or drain terminal,
- wherein the spin-orbit torque structure includes:
- a first heavy metal layer and a second heavy metal layer over the first heavy metal layer;
- and
- a plurality of molecules of a dielectric material scattered adjacent to an interface between the first heavy metal layer and the second heavy metal layer.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.