Thermal-Assisted Spin Transfer Torque Memory (STT-RAM) Cell Design Exploration

Abstract

Thermal-assisted spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) has been considered as a promising candidate of next-generation nonvolatile memory technology. We conducted finite element simulation on thermal dynamics in the programming process of thermal-assisted STT-RAM. Special attentions have been paid to the scalability and design space of the thermal-assist programming scheme by varying the memory element dimension and resistance-area product. We also provide systematic analysis and comparison between the thermal-assisted STT-RAM and standard STT-RAM. Discussions on the writeability and scalability of thermal-assisted STT-RAM are also conducted.