Novel oxygen showering process (OSP) for extreme damage suppression of sub-20nm high density p-MTJ array without IBE treatment

J. H. Jeong, T. Endoh

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A novel damage recovery scheme using the oxygen showering post-treatment (OSP) is proposed to recover patterning damages and to improve electric and magnetic properties of p-MTJs, and its array yield. By applying our OSP to 25nm p-MTJs cell array, the MR was increased from 99% to 116% and the Isw was decreased from 41.1uA to 28.7uA. Moreover, electric short fails of MTJs array due to metallic by-products reduced dramatically by the selective oxidation of the damaged layer and its isolation from damage-less area. The OSP process makes the switching efficiency of 25nm patterned MTJs to be improved more than 30% compared with IBE treatment process. The mechanism of this enhancement is that spin directions of damaged area is changed from perpendicular to in-plane and, by this change, the energy barrier of damaged area is reduced. By the OSP treatment, we could develop the robust patterning process for sub-20nm STT-MRAM.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2015 Symposium on VLSI Technology, VLSI Technology 2015 - Digest of Technical Papers
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
PagesT158-T159
ISBN (Electronic)9784863485013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Aug 25
EventSymposium on VLSI Technology, VLSI Technology 2015 - Kyoto, Japan
Duration: 2015 Jun 162015 Jun 18

Publication series

NameDigest of Technical Papers - Symposium on VLSI Technology
Volume2015-August
ISSN (Print)0743-1562

Conference

ConferenceSymposium on VLSI Technology, VLSI Technology 2015
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityKyoto
Period15/6/1615/6/18

Keywords

  • Damage recovery
  • MRAM
  • MTJs
  • selective oxidation
  • short yield
  • switching efficiency

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