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technical paper
Magnetic tunnel junction in modern computing
Spin-transfer-torque switchable magnetic tunnel junction is an enabling device that brought the recent technology and product offerings of spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory. I’ll review some current understanding, with an emphasis on device and materials physics underpinning switching performance in memory technologies, and the likely requirements for future generations in related applications space1-3. Key considerations include switching current, speed, and data-retention trade-off, and the need to seek more efficient charge-to-spin conversion mechanisms. Finally, I will touch on some nascent applications ideas involving the magnetic tunnel junction as a compact and power-efficient CMOS backend-compatible entropy source for probabilistic computing, and the device physics related to sub-nanosecond stochastic bit-stream generation4, with potential applications in computing schemes beyond von Neumann architecture.
References
1. Jonathan Z Sun, “Spin-transfer torque switched magnetic tunnel junction for memory technologies”, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2022.169479 (2022).
2. Christopher Safranski, Jonathan Z. Sun, and Andrew D. Kent, “A perspective on electrical generation of spin current for magnetic random-access memories”, Appl. Phys. Lett. Perspectives, Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 160502 (2022).
3. G. Hu, G. Lauer, J. Z. Sun, P. Hashemi, C. Safranski, S. L. Brown, L. Buzi, E. R. J. Edwards, C. P. D’ Emic, E. Galligan, M. G. Gottwald, O. Gunawan, H. Jung, J. Kim, K. Latzko, J. J. Nowak, P. L. Trouilloud, S. Zare, and D. C. Worledge, “2X reduction of STT-MRAM switching current using double spin-torque magnetic tunnel junction”, 2021 IEEE Intl. Elect. Dev. Meeting (IEDM), 2.5.1, (2021).
4. Christopher Safranski, Jan Kaiser, Philip Trouilloud, Pouya Hashemi, Guohan Hu, and Jonathan Z. Sun, “Demonstration of nanosecond operation in stochastic magnetic tunnel junctions”, Nano Letters 21, 2040 (2021).