Non-volatile Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (STT-RAM): An analysis of chip data, thermal stability and scalability

Abstract

STT-RAM (Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory) is a fast (≪10 ns), scalable, durable, non-volatile memory technology that is easily embedded in standard CMOS processes. An STT-RAM memory cell consists of an access transistor and a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) storage element (Figure 1). The minimum area of a single-level STT-RAM cell is 6 F2, which is competitive with DRAM and NOR Flash, and superior to SRAM. Even smaller effective unit cell areas are projected for multi-level cell architectures.