Magnetic tunneling junction with synthetic free layer for sot-mram
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChien-Min Lee, Shy-Jay Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A magnetic memory device includes a spin-orbit torque (SOT) induction spin Hall electrode and a free layer of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack disposed on the spin Hall electrode which is a synthetic anti-ferromagnetic structure. The free layer has a magnetic moment which is askew of the long axis of the MTJ stack and askew the direction of current flow through the spin Hall electrode. The MTJ stack internally generates a magnetic field to switch the state of the free layer. The free layer includes a first layer separated from a second layer by a spacer layer, where the first layer and the second layer may have the same or different crystalline structures.
Claims20
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:
- forming a spin orbit torque (SOT) layer on a substrate;
- forming a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) on and directly contacting the SOT layer;
- forming a cap layer on and directly contacting the SOT layer and the MTJ;
- and
- patterning the cap layer and the SOT layer at the same time.
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:
- forming a metallic interconnect structure over a substrate;
- blanket depositing a spin orbit torque (SOT) layer on the metallic interconnect structure;
- blanket depositing magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) layers on the SOT layer;
- patterning the MTJ layers to form an MTJ stack;
- conformally depositing a cap layer on the MTJ stack and the SOT layer;
- patterning the cap layer and the SOT layer to have coterminous sidewalls;
- and
- forming a metallic electrode extending through the patterned SOT layer and electrically contacting the MTJ stack.
A semiconductor device, comprising:
- a spin orbit torque (SOT) layer on a substrate;
- a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) on the SOT layer;
- a hard mask on the MTJ;
- and
- a cap layer on and directly contacting the SOT layer and the hard mask.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.