RF field heated diodes for providing thermally assisted switching to magnetic memory elements
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorJanice H. Nickel
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Abstract
An exemplary array of thermally-assisted magnetic memory structures includes a plurality of magnetic memory elements, each magnetic memory element being near a diode. A diode near a selected magnetic memory element can be heated by absorbing energy from a radio frequency electromagnetic field. The heated diode can be used to elevate the temperature of the selected magnetic memory element to thermally assist in switching the magnetic state of the magnetic memory element upon application of a write current.
Claims15
An array of thermally-assisted magnetic memory structures, each of said thermally-assisted magnetic memory structures comprising:
- a magnetic memory element;
- and
- a diode near said magnetic memory element, said diode capable of being heated by absorbing energy from a radio frequency electromagnetic field in a vicinity of said diode and, when heated, said diode capable of elevating a temperature of said magnetic memory element to thermally assist in switching a magnetic state of said magnetic memory element upon application of a write current.
A magnetic random access memory comprising:
- a plurality of magnetic memory elements;
- a plurality of diodes each being in close proximity to a respective one of said magnetic memory elements;
- at least one conductor near said diodes, said at least one conductor being capable of carrying a current to generate radio frequency electromagnetic fields absorbable by said diodes to heat said diodes to thereby elevate a temperature of one or more magnetic memory elements to thermally assist in switching a magnetic orientation thereof.
An apparatus for writing data to a thermally-assisted magnetic memory element in an array of memory elements, comprising:
- means for heating a diode near a selected memory element, said diode being heated by absorbing energy from a radio frequency electromagnetic field in a vicinity of said diode and elevating a temperature of said selected memory element, thereby reducing a magnetic coercivity of said selected memory element;
- and
- means for applying a write current sufficient to switch a magnetic state of said selected memory element at said reduced magnetic coercivity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.