Perpendicular magnetic memory with symmetric fixed layers
An embodiment includes an apparatus including: a substrate; a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ), on the substrate, including a first fixed layer, a second fixed layer, and a free layer between the first and second fixed layers; a first dielectric layer between the first fixed layer and the free layer; and a second layer between the second fixed layer and the free layer. Other embodiments are described herein.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a substrate;
a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ), on the substrate, comprising a first fixed layer, a second fixed layer, and a free layer between the first and second fixed layers;
a first dielectric layer between the first fixed layer and the free layer; and
a second dielectric layer between the second fixed layer and the free layer;
wherein the first fixed layer is anti-parallel to the second fixed layer.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first dielectric layer directly contacts the first fixed layer and the free layer; and the second dielectric layer directly contacts the second fixed layer and the free layer.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first and second dielectric layers each include magnesium (Mg) and oxygen (O), the first and second fixed layers each include Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe), and Boron (B), and the free layer includes Co, Fe, and B.
4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first fixed layer includes a first sublayer comprising Cobalt (Co) and another first sublayer comprising Platinum (Pt) and the second fixed layer includes a second sublayer comprising Co and another second sublayer comprising Pt.
5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein (a) the first fixed layer includes first sublayers and the second fixed layer includes second sublayers, (b) the first fixed layer has a first fixed layer effective anisotropy constant (Keff), the second fixed layer has a second fixed layer Keff, and the free layer has a free layer Keff, and (c) the first fixed layer Keff is greater than the second fixed layer Keff.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the second fixed layer Keff is greater than the free layer Keff.
7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein Keff=Ki/t−Kb−Ms2u0/2, where Keff=effective perpendicular anisotropy, Ki=interface anisotropy, t=thickness, Kb=bulk anisotropy, Ms=saturation magnetization, u0=permittivity constant.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first fixed layer is thicker than the second fixed layer.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first fixed layer includes more sublayers than the second fixed layer.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein (a) the first fixed layer includes a sublayer, comprising Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe), and Boron (B), and an additional sublayer comprising an electrode; and (b) the sublayer and the additional sublayer are on opposing ends of the first fixed layer.
11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of the pMTJ is based on whether the free layer is anti-parallel to the first fixed sublayer.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of the pMTJ is based on whether the free layer is anti-parallel to the first fixed sublayer and is not based on whether the free layer is anti-parallel to the second fixed sublayer.
13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of the pMTJ is more heavily influenced by (a) whether the free layer is anti-parallel to the first fixed sublayer, than (b) whether the free layer is anti-parallel to the second fixed sublayer.
14. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising an amorphous coupling layer directly contacting the first fixed layer.
15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the first fixed layer, the second fixed layer, and the free layer have a CoFeB portion that has a body-centered cubic (BCC) 100 lattice structure.
16. A system comprising:
a processor;
a memory, coupled to the processor, including an apparatus according to claim 1 ; and
a communication module, coupled to the processor, to communicate with a computing node external to the system.
17. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a mobile computing node including a non-volatile memory that comprises the pMTJ.
18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the free layer includes a sublayer including CoFeB and another sublayer including at least one of Ta, W, Mo, Hf, Ru, Pt, Cu, V, Cr, Nb, C, Mg, or combinations thereof.
19. An apparatus comprising:
a substrate;
a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ), on the substrate, comprising a first fixed layer, a second fixed layer, and a free layer between the first and second fixed layers;
a first dielectric layer between the first fixed layer and the free layer; and
a second layer between the second fixed layer and the free layer;
wherein the first fixed layer has a first fixed layer effective anisotropy constant (Keff), the second fixed layer has a second fixed layer Keff, and the first fixed layer Keff is greater than the second fixed layer Keff.
20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the second layer includes at least one of a dielectric layer and a non-magnetic metallic film.
21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the first dielectric layer directly contacts the first fixed layer and the free layer; and the second dielectric layer directly contacts the second fixed layer and the free layer.
22. An apparatus comprising:
a substrate;
a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ), on the substrate, comprising a first fixed layer, a second fixed layer, and a free layer between the first and second fixed layers;
a first dielectric layer between the first fixed layer and the free layer;
a second dielectric layer between the second fixed layer and the free layer; and
a mobile computing node including a non-volatile memory that comprises the pMTJ.
23. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the first dielectric layer directly contacts the first fixed layer and the free layer; and the second dielectric layer directly contacts the second fixed layer and the free layer.
24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the first and second dielectric layers each include magnesium (Mg) and oxygen (O), the first and second fixed layers each include Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe), and Boron (B), and the free layer includes Co, Fe, and B.
25. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the first fixed layer includes a first sublayer comprising Cobalt (Co) and another first sublayer comprising Platinum (Pt) and the second fixed layer includes a second sublayer comprising Co and another second sublayer comprising Pt.