High Current Events Triggered by Heavy Ion Microbeam and Pulsed Laser on a MRAM

Abstract

In this work, we investigate events on power consumption in a Magnetic RAM using heavy ion microbeam and pulsed laser. This study was initially motivated by various questions remained opened for MRAM in the literature such as the possibility of its occurrence in flight, its impact on long-term operation or the mitigation techniques. The nature and origin of such current events was also investigated. The spatio-temporal resolution of laser and heavy ion microbeam was useful to locate the sensitive areas and to study the evolution of the current after the event triggering. These test methods also avoid any test artifact related to multiple impacts. Various tests and current mappings were performed, first all over the MRAM, and later specifically in the sensitive areas to investigate the distributions of the sensitive zones and current levels. Complementary tests were performed to clarify the nature of these events.