Atomic Scale Modeling of Electron Transport in MRAM

Keywords:
tunneling magnetoresistance, MRAM, modeling

Abstract:
Atomic-scale modeling is becoming an important step in the process of designing novel advanced electronic devices, especially at the nanoscale size. Modeling R&D efforts are growing much faster than experimental research. One of the most prominent areas is the modeling of Tunneling Magnetoresistance, which is important to the production of magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) and read sensors for hard drives. We will present results on atomic-scale modeling, using Atomistix’s atomic scale modeling platform, of transport properties of Fe/Mg/Fe, Co/MgO/Co and FeCo/MgO/FeCo tunnel junctions at zero bias. We will show how these properties depend on the thickness of the MgO layer as well as the chemical composition of the interface layer and compare these to published experimental results.

Nanotech 2008 Conference Program Abstract