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SPINTRONICS AND SPINTRONIC DEVICES

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 A SEMINAR REPORT ON

SPINTRONICS
AND
SPINTRONIC DEVICES

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
In
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

Submitted by
VINEETH KARTHA
S7 EEE
ROLL NO: 61
University No: 08401033

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE BARTON HILL
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 695035

1
2
 GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE BARTON HILL
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 695035

DEPARTMENT OF
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE

Certified that seminar work entitled “ SPINTRONICS AND SPINTRONIC DEVICES ”

is a bonafide work carried out in the seventh semester by “ VINEETH KARTHA (08401033) ”
in partial fulfillment for the award of Bachelor of Technology in “ ELECTRICAL AND
ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING ” from University of Kerala during the academic
year 2011.

DR. P. JAYAPRAKASH Prof. SHEELA S.

Professor and Head

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Jayaprakash, Professor and Head,

Prof. Sheela.S , Staff Advisor, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering,
Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram, for their expert
advice and timely guidance in preparation of the seminar.

I express my heartfelt thanks to Prof. K.L.Sreekumar, Assistant Professor, Prof.

B.Mayadevi, Professor, Smt. Arlene Davidson, Lecturer, Smt. Anu, Lecturer,Mr.
Vinod, Lecturer, Guest Lecturer Mr. Vinith, Department of Electrical & Electronics
Engineering, Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram,
for their kind co-operation, encouragement and help.

I thank God Almighty for showering his blessings on me without which this
report would have been impossible.

Last but not the least, I wish to place on record my gratefulness to my parents,
friends and classmates for their suggestions, criticisms and assistance towards the
improvement and successful completion of the report.

VINEETH KARTHA

4
 Contents
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................7

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................9

A BRIEF HISTORY...........................................................................................................................10

GIANT MAGNETO RESISTANCE..................................................................................................11

DISCOVERY:................................................................................................................................11
THEORY:.......................................................................................................................................11
TYPES OF GMR...........................................................................................................................12
MULTILAYER:...............................................................................................................12
GRANULAR:..................................................................................................................13
PSEUDO SPIN VALVE:.................................................................................................13
TUNNEL MAGNETORESISTANCE...............................................................................................14

SPIN VALVE......................................................................................................................................16

SPIN TRANSFER TORQUE.............................................................................................................18

MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY..................................................................................19

HOW MRAM WORKS:-................................................................................................21

SPIN VALVE TRANSISTOR............................................................................................................27

CONSTRUCTION:.......................................................................................................................27
WORKING:...................................................................................................................................28
APPLICATIONS: .........................................................................................................................29
ADVANTAGES:............................................................................................................................30
ADVANTAGES..................................................................................................................................31

LIMITATIONS...................................................................................................................................31

CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................32

REFFERENCES.................................................................................................................................33

5
 ABSTRACT

Spintronics also known as magneto electronics,is an emerging technology that

exploits both the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in
addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. Spintronics
emerged from discoveries in the 1980s concerning spin-dependent electron transport
phenomena in solid-state devices. This includes the observation of spin-polarized
electron injection from a ferromagnetic metal to a normal metal(1985),and the
discovery of giant magneto resistance(1988). The origins of spintronics can be traced
back even further to the ferromagnet/superconductor tunneling experiments,and
initial experiments on magnetic tunnel junctions. The use of semiconductors for
spintronics can be traced back at least as far as the theoretical proposal of a spin field-
effect-transistor by Datta and Das in 1990. Recently integrated magnetic/spintronic
device micro arrays have demonstrated great potentials in both biomedical research
and practices. Also they have been widely used in creation of Magnetoresistive
Random Access Memories. Motorola has developed a 1st generation 256 Kb MRAM
based on a single magnetic tunnel junction and a single transistor and which has a
read/write cycle of under 50 nanoseconds. The IBM-Infineon MRAM Development
Alliance has recently developed a prototype 16Mb MRAM. Thermal Assisted
Switching (TAS) which is being developed by Crocus Technology, and Spin Torque
Transfer (STT) on which Crocus, Hynix, IBM, and several other companies are
working. Another design in development, called Racetrack memory, encodes
information in the direction of magnetization between domain walls of a
ferromagnetic metal wire. The Seminar Spintronics and Spintronic devices will give
an introduction on spintronics and will deal with the recent advances of spintronic
devices like the MRAM, and will make a comparison of the other memories available
at present and the advantage of the MRAM and its technical feasibility, the seminar
will also cover spintronic logic devices and spintronic Devices in Magnetic
BioSensing.

6
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MRAM - Magnetic Random Access Memory

TAS - Thermal Assisted Switching

STT - Spin Transfer Torque

AMR - Anisotropic Magneto Resistance

GMR - Giant Magneto Resistance

Fe -Iron

Cr - Chromium

Cu -Copper

RKKY - Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida Coupling mechanism

AFM - Anti FerroMagnetic

FM - FerroMagnetic

TMR -Tunnel Magneto Resistance

MTJ - Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

NVRAM - Non Volatile Random Access Memory

7
 INTRODUCTION

In our conventional electronic devices charge of electron used to achieve functionalities and
also semi conducting materials for logical operation and magnetic materials for storage, but
spintronics manipulates the electron spin and resulting magnetic moment,to achieve
improved functionalities and also magnetic materials are used for processing and storage.
These spintronic devices are more versatile and faster than the present one.

Spintronics (" SPIN TRansport electrONICS "), also known as magneto electronics, is an
emerging technology that exploits the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated
magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices.}

Conventional electronic devices rely on the transport of electrical charge carriers - electrons
in a semiconductor such as silicon. Now, however, physicists are trying to exploit the 'spin'
of the electron rather than its charge to create a remarkable new generation of 'spintronic'
devices which will be smaller, more versatile and more robust than those currently making
up silicon chips and circuit elements. During that 50-year period, the world witnessed a
revolution based on a digital logic of electrons. From the earliest transistor to the
remarkably powerful microprocessor in your desktop computer, most electron IC devices
have employed circuits that express data as binary digits, or bits—ones and zeros
represented by the existence or absence of electric charge.

Moore’s Law, which holds that microprocessors will double in power every 18 months as
electronic devices shrink and more logic is packed into every chip. Moore’s Law has run out
of momentum as the size of individual bits approaches the dimension of atoms—this has
been called the end of the silicon road map. For this reason and also to enhance the multi-
functionality of devices investigators have been eager to exploit another property of the
electron—a characteristic known as spin. Spin is a purely quantum phenomenon .

8
 A BRIEF HISTORY

Two experiments in 1920’s suggested spin as an additional property of the electron. One
was the closely spaced splitting of Hydrogen spectral lines, called fine structure. The other
was Stern –Gerlach experiment, which in 1922 that a beam of silver atoms directed through
an inhomogeneous magnetic field would be forced in to two beams. These pointed towards
magnetism associated with the electrons.

In 1965, Gordon Moore, Intel's co-founder, predicted that the number of transistors on an
integrated circuit would double every 18 month. That prediction, now known as Moore’s
Law, effectively described a trend that has continued ever since, but the end of that trend—
the moment when transistors are as small as atoms, and cannot be shrunk any further—is
expected as early as 2015.

Magnetoresistance is the property of a material to change the value of its electrical

resistance when an external magnetic field is applied to it. The effect was first discovered
by William Thomson (more commonly known as Lord Kelvin) in 1856, but he was unable
to lower the electrical resistance of anything by more than 5%. This effect was later termed
Anisotropic Magnetoresistance (AMR) to distinguish it from GMR. Spintronics came into
light by the advent of Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR) in 1988. GMR is 200 times
stronger than ordinary Magneto Resistance. It results from subtle electron – spin effects in
ultra multi-layers of magnetic materials that cause a huge change in electrical resistance.
Giant magneto resistance is a quantum mechanical magneto resistance effect observed in
thin film structures composed of alternating ferromagnetic and non magnetic layers.

The 2007 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for the
discovery of GMR. The effect is observed as a significant change in the electrical resistance
depending on whether the magnetization of adjacent ferromagnetic layers are in a parallel or
an anti-parallel alignment. The overall resistance is relatively low for parallel alignment and
relatively high for anti-parallel alignment. GMR is used by hard disk drive manufactures.

9
 GIANT MAGNETO RESISTANCE

DISCOVERY:

GMR was independently discovered in 1988 in Fe/Cr/Fe trilayers by a research team

led by Peter Grunberg, who owns the patent, and in Fe/Cr multilayers by the group of
Albert Fert of the University of Paris-Sud, who first saw the large effect in
multilayers (up to 50% change in resistance) that led to its naming, and first correctly
explained the underlying physics. The discovery of GMR is considered as the birth
of Spintronics.
Grunberg and Fert have received a number of prestigious prizes and awards for their
discovery and contributions to the field of Spintronics, including the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 2007.

THEORY:

Like other magnetoresistive effects, giant magnetoresistance (GMR) is the change in

electrical resistance of some materials in response to an applied magnetic field. It was
discovered that the application of a
magnetic field to magnetic metallic
multilayers such as Fe/Cr and
Co/Cu, in which ferromagnetic
layers are separated by nonmagnetic
spacer layers of a few nm thick,
results in a significant reduction of
the electrical resistance of the
multilayer. This effect was found to be much larger than other magnetoresistive

10
effects that had ever been observed in metals and was, therefore, called “giant
magnetoresistance”. In Fe/Cr and Co/Cu multilayers the magnitude of GMR can be
higher than 100% at low temperatures.

The change in the resistance of the multilayer

arises when the applied field aligns the magnetic
moments of the successive ferromagnetic layers,
as is illustrated schematically in the figure below.
In the absence of the magnetic field the
magnetizations of the ferromagnetic layers are
antiparallel. Applying the magnetic field, which aligns the magnetic moments and
saturates the magnetization of the multilayer, leads to a drop in the electrical
resistance of the multilayer. Usually resistance of multilayer is measured with the
Current in Plane (CIP). For instance, Read back magnetic heads uses this property.
But this suffers from several drawbacks such as; shunting and channeling,
particularly for uncoupled multilayers and for thick spaced layers diminish the CIP
magneto resistance. Diffusive surface scattering reduces the magneto resistance for
sandwiches and thin multilayers.

To erase these problems we

measure with Current
Perpendicular to the Plane (CPP),
mainly because electrons cross all
magnetic layers, but a practical
difficulty is encountered the perpendicular resistance of ultra thin multilayers is too
small to be measured by ordinary techniques.

The use of Micro fabrication techniques for CPP measurements, from 4.2 to 300k
was first shown for Fe/Cr multilayers, where the multilayers were etched into
micropillars to obtain a relatively large resistance (a few milli ohms). These types of

11
measurements have confirmed the larger MR for the CPP configuration, but they
suffer from general complexity of realisation and measurement techniques.
Experiments using electro deposited nanowires showed CPP MR up to 15% at room
temperature

TYPES OF GMR

MULTILAYER:
Two or more ferromagnetic layers are separated by a very thin (about 1 nm) non-
ferromagnetic spacer (e.g. Fe/Cr/Fe). At certain thicknesses the RKKY 1 coupling
between adjacent ferromagnetic layers becomes anti ferromagnetic, making it
energetically preferable for the magnetizations of adjacent layers to align in anti-
parallel. The electrical resistance of the device is normally higher in the anti-parallel
case and the difference can reach more than 10% at room temperature. The interlayer
spacing in these devices typically corresponds to the second anti ferromagnetic peak
in the AFM-FM oscillation in the RKKY coupling. The GMR effect was first
observed in the multilayer configuration, with much early research into GMR
focusing on multilayer stacks of 10 or more layers.

GRANULAR:
Granular GMR is an effect that occurs in solid precipitates of a magnetic material in
a non-magnetic matrix. In practice, granular GMR is only observed in matrices of
copper containing cobalt granules. The reason for this is that copper and cobalt are
immiscible, and so it is possible to create the solid precipitate by rapidly cooling a
molten mixture of copper and cobalt. Granule sizes vary depending on the cooling
rate and amount of subsequent annealing. Granular GMR materials have not been
able to produce the high GMR ratios found in the multilayer counterparts.
1 It refers to a coupling mechanism of nuclear magnetic moments or localized inner d or f shell electron spins in a
metal by means of an interaction through the conduction electrons.

12
PSEUDO SPIN VALVE:
Pseudo-spin valve devices are very similar to the spin valve structures. The
significant difference is the coercivities of the ferromagnetic layers. In a pseudo-spin
valve structure a soft magnet will be used for one layer; where as a hard ferromagnet
will be used for the other. This allows an applied field to flip the magnetization of the
hard ferromagnet layer. For pseudo-spin valves, the non-magnetic layer thickness
must be great enough so that exchange coupling minimized. This reduces the chance
that the alignment of the magnetization of adjacent layers will spontaneously change
at a later time.

13
 TUNNEL MAGNETORESISTANCE

The Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) is a magnetoresistive effect that occurs in

magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). This is a component consisting of two
ferromagnets separated by a thin insulator. If the insulating layer is thin enough
(typically a few nanometers), electrons can tunnel from one ferromagnet into the
other. Since this process is forbidden in classical physics, the tunnel
magnetoresistance is a strictly quantum mechanical phenomenon.

Magnetic tunnel junctions are manufactured in thin film technology. On an industrial

scale the film deposition is done by magnetron sputter deposition; on a laboratory
scale molecular beam epitaxy, pulsed laser deposition and electron beam physical
vapor deposition are also utilized. The junctions are prepared by photolithography.

The direction of the two

magnetizations of the
ferromagnetic films can be
switched individually by an
external magnetic field. If
the magnetizations are in a
parallel orientation it is
more likely that electrons
will tunnel through the
insulating film than if they
are in the oppositional
(antiparallel) orientation. Consequently, such a junction can be switched between two
states of electrical resistance, one with low and one with very high resistance.

14
The effect was originally discovered in 1975 by M. Jullière (University of Rennes,
France) in Fe/Ge-O/Co-junctions at 4.2 K. The relative change of resistance was
around 14%, and did not attract much attention. In 1991 T. Miyazaki (University
Tohoku, Japan) found an effect of 2.7% at room temperature. Later, in 1994,
Miyazaki found 18% in junctions of iron separated by an amorphous aluminum oxide
insulator and J. Moodera found 11.8% in junctions with electrodes of CoFe and Co.
The highest effects observed to date with aluminum oxide insulators are around 70%
at room temperature.

Since the year 2000, tunnel barriers of crystalline magnesium oxide (MgO) are under
development. In 2001 Butler and Mathon independently made the theoretical
prediction that using iron as the ferromagnet and MgO as the insulator, the tunnel
magnetoresistance can reach several thousand percent. The same year, Bowen et al.
were the first to report experiments showing a significant TMR in a MgO based
magnetic tunnel junction [Fe/MgO/FeCo(001)]. In 2004, Parkin and Yuasa were able
to make Fe/MgO/Fe junctions that reach over 200% TMR at room temperature.
Today (2009) effects of up to 600% at room temperature and more than 1100% at 4.2
K are observed in junctions of CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB .

The read-heads of modern hard disk drives work on the basis of magnetic tunnel
junctions. TMR, or more specifically the magnetic tunnel junction, is also the basis of
MRAM, a new type of non-volatile memory. The 1st generation technologies relied
on creating cross-point magnetic fields on each bit to write the data on it, although
this approach has a scaling limit at around 90-130 nm. There are two 2nd generation
techniques currently being developed: Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS) and Spin
Torque Transfer (STT) on which several companies are working Further, magnetic
tunnel junctions are also used for sensing applications.

15
 SPIN VALVE

Two ferromagnetic layers are separated by a thin (about 3 nm) non-ferromagnetic

spacer, but without RKKY coupling. If the coercive fields of the two ferromagnetic
electrodes are different it is possible to switch them independently. Therefore,
parallel and anti-parallel alignment can be achieved, and normally the resistance is
again higher in the anti-parallel case. This device is sometimes also called a spin
valve. Spin valve GMR is the configuration that is industrially most useful, and is
used in hard drives. Stuart Parkin and two groups of colleagues at IBM's Almaden
Research Center, San Jose, Calif, quickly recognized its potential, both as an
important new scientific discovery in magnetic materials and one that might be used
in sensors even more sensitive than MR heads. Parkin first wanted to reproduce the
Europeans' results. But he did not want to wait to use the expensive machine that
could make multilayers in the same slow-and-perfect way that Grunberg and Fert
had. So Parkin and his colleague, Kevin P. Roche, tried a faster and less-precise
process common in disk-
drive manufacturing:
sputtering. To their
astonishment and delight,
it worked! Parkin's team
saw GMR in the first
multilayers they made.
This demonstration meant
that they could make
enough variations of the multilayers to help discover how GMR worked, and it gave
Almaden's Bruce Gurney and co-workers hope that a room-temperature, low-field
version could work as a super-sensitive sensor for disk drives.

16
The key structure in GMR materials is a spacer layer of a non magnetic metal
between two magnetic metals. Magnetic materials tend to align themselves in the
same direction. So if the spacer layer is thin enough, changing the orientation of one
of the magnetic layers can cause the next one to align itself in the same direction.
Increase the spacer layer thickness and you'd expect the strength of such "coupling"
of the magnetic layers to decrease. But as Parkin's team made and tested some
30,000 different multilayer combinations of different elements and layer dimensions,
they demonstrated the generality of GMR for all transition metal elements and
invented the structures that still hold the world records for GMR at low temperature,
room temperature and useful fields. In addition, they discovered oscillations in the
coupling strength: the magnetic alignment of the magnetic layers periodically swung
back and forth from being aligned in the same magnetic direction (parallel alignment)
to being aligned in opposite magnetic directions (anti-parallel alignment). The
overall resistance is relatively low when the layers were in parallel alignment and
relatively high when in anti-parallel alignment. For his pioneering work in GMR,
Parkin won the European Physical Society's prestigious 1997 Hewlett-Packard
Europhysics Prize along with Gruenberg and Fert. Searching for a useful disk-drive
sensor design that would operate at low magnetic fields, Bruce Gurney and
colleagues began focusing on the simplest possible arrangement: two magnetic
layers separated by a spacer layer chosen to ensure that the coupling between
magnetic layers was weak, unlike previously made structures. They also "pinned" in
one direction the magnetic orientation of one layer by adding a fourth layer: a strong
anti ferromagnet. When a weak magnetic field, such as that from a bit on a hard disk,
passes beneath such a structure, the magnetic orientation of the unpinned magnetic
layer rotates relative to that of the pinned layer, generating a significant change in
electrical resistance due to the GMR effect. This structure was named the spin valve.
Gurney and colleagues worked for several years to perfect the sensor design that is
used in the new disk drives. The materials and their tiny dimensions had to be fine-
tuned so they 1) could be manufactured reliably and economically, 2) yielded the

17
uniform resistance changes required to detect bits on a disk accurately, and 3) were
stable -- neither corroding nor degrading -- for the lifetime of the drive. "That's why
it's so important to understand the science," Parkin says. "IBM's intensive studies of
GMR enabled us to enhance considerably the performance of some low-field
sensors."

The chief source of GMR is "spin dependent" scattering of electrons. Electrical

resistance is due to scattering of electrons within a material. By analogy, consider
how fast it takes you to drive from one town to another. Without obstacles on a
freeway, you can proceed quickly. But if you encounter heavy traffic, accidents, road
construction and other obstacles, you'll travel much slower. Depending on its
magnetic direction, a single-domain magnetic material will scatter electrons with
"up" or "down" spin differently. When the magnetic layers in GMR structures are
aligned anti-parallel, the resistance is high because "up" electrons that are not
scattered in one layer can be scattered in the other. When the layers are aligned in
parallel, all of the "up" electrons will not scatter much, regardless of which layer
they pass through, yielding a lower resistance.

18
 SPIN TRANSFER TORQUE

Spin-transfer torque is an effect in which the orientation of a magnetic layer in a

tunnel magnetoresistance or spin valve can be modified using a spin-polarized
current. Charge carriers (such as electrons) have a property known as spin which is a
small quantity of angular momentum intrinsic to the carrier. An electrical current is
generally unpolarized (consisting of 50% spin-up and 50% spin-down electrons); a
spin polarized current is one with more electrons of either spin. By passing a current
through a thick magnetic layer, one can produce a spin-polarized current. If a spin-
polarized current is directed into a magnetic layer, angular momentum can be
transferred to the layer, changing its orientation. This can be used to excite
oscillations or even flip the orientation of the magnet. The effects are usually only
seen in nanometer scale devices.

Spin-transfer torque can

be used to flip the active
elements in magnetic random
access memory. Spin-transfer
torque random access memory,
or STT-RAM, has the
advantages of lower power
consumption and better
scalability over conventional
MRAM which uses magnetic fields to flip the active elements. The name STT-RAM
was first coined by Grandis, Inc. Spin-transfer torque technology has the potential to
make possible MRAM devices combining low current requirements and reduced
cost; however, the amount of current needed to reorient the magnetization is at

19
present too high for most commercial applications, and the reduction of this current
density alone is the basis for current academic research in spin electronics.

Hynix Semiconductor and Grandis formed a partnership in April 2008 to explore

commercial development of STT-RAM technology. On August 1, 2011, Grandis
announced that it had been purchased by Samsung for an undisclosed sum. Hitachi
and Tohoku University demonstrated a 32-Mbit STT-RAM in June 2009.

20
 MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY
You hit the power button on your television and it instantly comes to life. But do the
same thing with your computer and you have to wait a few minutes while it goes
through its boot up sequence. Why can't we have a computer that turns on as instantly
as a television or radio? IBM, in cooperation with Infineon, is promising to launch a
new technology in the next few years that will eliminate the boot-up process.
Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) has the potential to store more data,
access that data faster and use less power than current memory technologies. The key
to MRAM is that, as its name suggests, it uses magnetism rather than electrical power
to store data. This is a major leap from dynamic RAM (DRAM), the most common
type of memory in use today, which requires a continuous supply of electricity and is
terribly inefficient. Twenty-five years ago, DRAM overtook ferrite core memory in
the race to rule the PC memory market. Now it looks like
ferromagnetic technology could be making a comeback, with IBM Corp. and
Infineon Technologies charging a joint team of 80 engineers and scientists with the
task of making magnetic RAM (MRAM)

All modern hard disks are equipped with two different heads , one for writing and the
other for reading. The principle of the writing head is quite simple, i.e., generation of
a magnetic field as electricity passes through the head. The head focuses this
magnetic field generated to the area on the disk surface where the bit is to be written.
Conceptually the technique for reading is the reverse of that of writing, i.e., using
electromagnetic induction and it was the technique used in earlier hard disks. But as
the storage density increased, it became very difficult to read a bit from the disk
surface as there was the interference of magnetic fields from the neighboring bits.

A small electrical current is kept flowing through the reading head. When a bit passes

21
under the head, due to the presence of the magnetic field associated with the bit, the
electrical resistance of head changes which alters the current flowing through it. This
change in the current flow is so significant that it can be easily detected.

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile computer

memory (NVRAM) technology, which has been under development since the 1990s.
Continued increases in density of existing memory technologies -- notably Flash
RAM and DRAM -- kept MRAM in a niche role in the market, but its proponents
believe that the advantages are so overwhelming that MRAM will eventually become
dominant. Unlike conventional RAM chip technologies, in MRAM data is not stored
as electric charge or current flows, but by magnetic storage elements.

The elements are formed from two ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a
magnetic field, separated by a thin insulating layer. One of the two plates is a
permanent magnet set to a particular polarity; the other's field will change to match
that of an external field. A memory device is built from a grid of such "cells".
Reading is accomplished by measuring the electrical resistance of the cell. A
particular cell is (typically) selected by powering an associated transistor which
switches current from a supply line through the cell to ground. Due to the magnetic
tunnel effect, the electrical resistance of the cell changes due to the orientation of the
fields in the two plates. By measuring the resulting current, the resistance inside any
particular cell can be determined, and from this the polarity of the writable plate.
Typically if the two plates have the same polarity this is considered to mean "0",
while if the two plates are of opposite polarity the resistance will be higher and this
means "1". On comparison with existing memory technologies, MRAM is faster than
SRAM, have a higher storage density than DRAM, the power requirement is less
than that of DRAM and it is faster than FLASH. MRAM is the Memory of the future.
If the researches turn up, it will replace both Volatile and Non Volatile Primary
memories.

22
HISTORY:-

2000 - IBM and Infineon established a joint MRAM development program.

2000 - Spintec laboratory's first Spin Torque Transfer patent.
2002 - NVE Announces Technology Exchange with Cypress Semiconductor.
2003 - A 128 kbit MRAM chip was introduced, manufactured with a 180 nm
lithographic process
2004 - Infineon unveiled a 16-Mbit prototype
2005 - Sony announced the first lab-produced spin-torque-transfer MRAM
2007 - Tohoku University and Hitachi developed a prototype 2 Mbit Non-
Volatile RAM Chip employing spin-transfer torque switching
2008 - Scientists in Germany have developed next-generation MRAM that is
said to operate with write cycles under 1 ns.
2009 - Hitachi and Tohoku University demonstrated a 32-Mbit spin-transfer
torque RAM

HOW MRAM WORKS:-

MRAM (Magnetoresistive
Random Access Memory)
uses electron spin to store
data. Memory cells are
integrated on an integrated
circuit chip, and the function
of the resulting device is like
a semiconductor static RAM
(SRAM) chip, with potentially higher density and the added feature that the data are
nonvolatile, that is data are retained with power off. Typical “classic”or

23
“conventional” MRAM uses spin-dependent tunnel junction memory cells and
magnetic row and column write lines as illustrated.

The spin-dependent tunnel junction produces a large change in resistance depending

on the predominant electron spin in a storage layer. The tunnel barrier is as thin as a
few atomic layers--so thin that electrons can “tunnel” through the normally insulating
material, causing a resistance change. Row and column magnetic write lines allow
data to be written to a selected cell in a two-dimensional array:

Data are written by small electrical

currents in the write lines that create
a magnetic fields, which flip electron
spins in the spin-dependent tunnel
junction storage layer, thus changing
the junction’s resistance. Data is read
by the tunneling current or resistance
through the tunnel junction. Next-
generation MRAM could reduce cell
size and power consumption. Potential next-generation designs include Spin-
Momentum Transfer, Magneto-Thermal MRAM, and Vertical Transport MRAM.
Spin-Momentum Transfer (also “Spin-Transfer,” “Spin Injection,” or “Spin Torque
Transfer”) MRAM is based on changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an
electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. This method has the potential
to significantly reduce MRAM write currents, especially with lithographic feature
sizes less than 100 nanometers. M-T MRAM uses a combination of magnetic fields
and ultra-fast heating from electrical current pulses to reduce the energy required to
write data.

24
The Table below shows the comparison of various memory types

25
MRAM is a combination of the advantages of existing technologies.

26
 SPIN VALVE TRANSISTOR

A spin valve multilayer serves as a base region of an n silicon metal base transistor
structure. Metal base transistors have been proposed for ultrahigh frequency
operations because of 1. Negligible base transport time. 2. Low base resistance, but
low gain prospects have limited their emergence. The first evidence of a spin valve
effect for hot electrons in Co/Cu multilayers is the spin valve transistor. In this we see
a very large change in collector current (215% at 77K) under application of magnetic
field of 500 Oe.

In spin valve transistor (SVT) electrons are injected in to metallic base across a
Schottky barrier (Emitter side) pass through the spin valve and reach the opposite
side (Collector side) of transistor. When these injected electrons traverse the metallic
base electrons are above Fermi level, hence hot electron magneto transport should be
considered in Spin Valve Transistor (SVT).

The transport properties of hot electrons are different from Fermi electrons .For
example spin polarisation of Fermi electrons mainly depends on Density Of States
(DOS) at Fermi level, while the spin polarisation of hot electron is related to the
density of unoccupied states above the fermi level.

For the preparations of transistor we apply direct bonding, both to obtain

device quality semiconductor material for the emitter and to allow room temperature
processes.

27
CONSTRUCTION:

The starting material for both emitter and collector is a 380um, 5-10Ocm, n-si (100)
wafer. After back side n++ implantation ,wafer is dry oxidised to anneal the implant
and to form a SIO2 layer .After depositing a Pt ohmic contact on to the back side,
wafer is sawn in to 10X10mm collector and 1.6X1.6mm emitters. Collector is
subsequently dipped in HNO3, 2% HF to remove the native oxide on silicon
fragments,5% Tetra methyl Ammonium Hydroxide at 90˚, and buffered HF to remove
thermal oxide .following each step the collector is rinsed in demineralised water.
After this procedure base multilayer (Cu 2nm/Co 1.5nm), is rf sputtered through a
laser cut metal shadow mask on to the collector substrate defining square base
regions slightly larger than the emitter surface. Directly after cleaning the emitter in a
similar manner its hydrophobic surface is contacted to the multilayer surface, forming
a bond through spontaneous adhesion.

Here metal parts were laid down directly on to the doped Silicon base layer, which
resulted in the information of metal silicides at the interface. These degrade device
performance due to the large depolarising effect they have on the flow of spin
polarized charge carriers through the interface which severely reduces the magnetic
sensitivity of devices.

28
WORKING:
The energy band diagram of the bonded Co/Cu of spinvalve transistor is shown
below.

Fig. 2 Energy Band Diagram

The collector barrier height about 0.7eV while the emitter barrier height is 0.6eV.The
emitter and collector Schottky barrier are in forward and reverse bias respectively as
illustrated by the CB configuration in Fig. 1. The emitter bias accelerates the
electrons towards the emitter barrier, after which they constitute the hot “Ballistic”
electrons in the base. The probability of passing the collector barrier is limited by the
collisions in the base which effect their energy and trajectory by optical phonon
scattering in the semiconductor and by quantum mechanical reflections at the base
collector interface. For a base transistor with a single metal base film, this can be
expressed by the CB current transfer ratio or current gain.

α o=( J c – J leak )/ J e =α c α e α qm e −w / y

Where

αe = emitter efficiency

αc = collector efficiency

29
 α qm = quantum mechanical transmission

W = base width

And λ is the hot electron mean free path (MFP), in the base. The factor e−w / λ

represents the probability of transmission of the hot electrons through the base. Jc

is the total collector current, J leak is the collector leakage current, determined by the
reverse biased collector Schottky barrier and J e is the injected emitter current. The
αc and α e depend among others, on the type and quality of the semi conductors.
In the SVT under consideration, the thickness of the individual layers (Co/Cu) are
much smaller than the spin-slip diffusion length ( a few nm as compared to several
tens of nm). Neglecting, therefore, spin flip scattering, we consider the spin up and
spin down electrons to carry the current in parallel (two current model). Further more
it has been shown that in this limit no spin relaxation occurs in the CPP-MR and that
consequently the perpendicular transport properties can be very simply described by
considering a network of serial resistance for each channel of electrons corresponding
to the resistance’s of successive layers and interfaces.

APPLICATIONS:

Spin transistors have huge potential for incorporation in stable, high sensitivity
magnetic field sensors for automotive, robotic, mechanical engg. & data storage
applications. This may also be used as Magnetically Controlled Parametric
Amplifiers & Mixers, as magnetic signal processors, for control of brush less DC
motors & as Magnetic Logic elements. In log applications they have the advantage
over conventional semiconductor chips that they do not require power to maintain
their memory slate. It finds its application towards Quantum Computer, a new trend
in computing. Here we use Qubits instead of bits.Qubit also represents only 1& 0 but
here they show superposition these classical states. But it is in pioneering stage.

30
There are major efforts ongoing at Honeywell, IBM, Motorola in developing RAM
based on spin valves and metal tunnel junctions such devices called MRAM have
demonstrated faster speed, high density low power consumption, non volatility and
radiation harness they are promising replacements for the Semi Conducting RAM
currently used.

ADVANTAGES:

 Traditional transistors use on & off charge currents to create bits – the binary 0&1
of Computer information. Quantum spin field effect transistor will use up & down
spin states to generate the same binary data.

 A currently logic is usually carried out using conventional electrons, while spin is
used for memory. Spintronics will combine both.

 In most Semi Conducting transistors the relative proportion of the up & down
carries types are equal. If Ferro Magnetic material is used as the carrier source then
the ratio can be deliberately skewed in one direction.

 Amplification and / or switching properties of the Device can be controlled by the

external magnetic field applied to the device.

 One of the problems of charge current electrons is that we pack more devices
together, the chip heats up. Spin current releases heat but it is rather less.

31
 ADVANTAGES

1. Non-Volatile memory

2. Low power Consumption

3. Spintronics does not require unique and specialised semiconductors

4. Spin life time is relatively long on the order of nanoseconds.

5. compared to normal RAM chips,

6. spintronic RAM chips will:

• increase storage densities

• have faster operation

LIMITATIONS

1. Controlling spin for long distances.

2. Difficult to INJECT and MEASURE spin.

3. Interference with nearest field.

4. Control of spin in Silicon is difficult.

32
 CONCLUSION

Interest in spintronics arises, in part, from the looming problem of exhausting the

fundamental physical limits of conventional electronics. The spin of the electron has

attracted renewed interest because it promises a wide variety of new devices that

combine logic, storage and sensor applications. Moreover, these “spintronic” devices

might lead to quantum computers and quantum communication based on electronic

solid-state devices, thus changing the perspective of information technology in the

21st century.

33
 REFFERENCES

[1] Stuart A. Wolf,Jiwei Lu, Mircea R.Stan,Eugene Chen and Daryl M. Tregger

The Promise of Nanomagnetics and Spintronics for future Logic and

Universal memory IEEE,2010.

[2] Michael E. Flatte

Spintronics IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices Vol 54, No.5 ,2007.

[3] Shoji Ikeda, Jun Hayakawa

Magnetic tunneling Junctions for spintronics Memories and Beyond IEEE

Transactions on Electronic Devices Vol 54, No.5 ,2007.

[4] Feynman, Leighton, Sands

Feynman Lectures on Physics ,Volume 3

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