Development of the Magnetic Tunnel Junction MRAM at IBM: From First Junctions to a 16-Mb MRAM Demonstrator Chip

Overview

This paper reviews the remarkable developments of the magnetic tunnel junction over the last decade and in particular, work aimed at demonstrating its potential for a dense, fast, and nonvolatile random access memory. The initial focus is on the technological roots of the magnetic tunnel junction, and then on the recent progress made with engineered materials for this device. Following that, the paper discusses the development of the Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) technology, in which the magnetic tunnel junction serves as both the storage device and the storage sensing device.