Patent ID: 11903324
Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
providing a stack of material layers, the stack of material layers including:
a first electrode layer; and
a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) stack disposed on the first electrode layer,

the MTJ stack including a pinned layer, a tunnel barrier layer and a free layer;
converting portions of the pinned layer, the tunnel barrier layer and the free layer to a non-conductive portion of the pinned layer, a non-conductive portion of the tunnel barrier layer and a non-conductive portion of the free layer, respectively; and
removing the non-conductive portion of the pinned layer, the non-conductive portion of the tunnel barrier layer and the non-conductive portion of the free layer to form a patterned MTJ stack, wherein remaining portions of the non-conductive portion of the pinned layer, the non-conductive portion of the tunnel barrier layer and the non-conductive portion of the free layer remain disposed on a sidewall of the patterned MTJ stack after the removing of the non-conductive portion of the pinned layer, the non-conductive portion of the tunnel barrier layer and the non-conductive portion of the free layer to form the patterned MTJ stack.