Patent ID: 6531723
Filing Date: 2003-03-11
Classification: B82Y,G11C,H01F,H01L

Abstract:
A scalable magnetoresistive tunneling junction memory cell comprising:an electrically insulating material designed to form a magnetoresistive tunneling barrier; a first magnetic region positioned on one side of the electrically insulating material, the first magnetic region having a magnetic moment vector adjacent the electrically insulating material; a second magnetic region positioned on an opposite side of the electrically insulating material, the second magnetic region having a magnetic moment vector adjacent the insulating material and oriented in a position parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetic moment vector of the first magnetic region, the electrically insulating material and the first and second magnetic regions forming a magnetoresistive tunneling junction device, and at least one of the first and second magnetic regions including a synthetic anti-ferromagnetic layer material that has a magnetic switching volume, the synthetic anti-ferromagnetic layer material includes N ferromagnetic layers which are anti-ferromagnetically coupled, where N is an integer greater than or equal to two, and the magnetic switching volume is adjustable by changing N to maintain a sufficient energy barrier to switching for nonvolatile memory operation as the magnetoresistive memory element is scaled laterally to smaller dimensions.