Patent ID: 7936027

Claim:
A patterned MTJ cell protected from both electrical short-circuiting resulting from re-deposition of etching residues and from the formation of footings, comprising: a horizontally extensive bottom electrode; a horizontally multi-layered MTJ cell formed on said electrode but not coextensive with said electrode, said cell having substantially vertical lateral sides and a substantially uniform horizontal cross-section of arbitrary peripheral shape extending to said bottom electrode, wherein said sides are defined by lateral edges of said MTJ cell layers; and said sides are divided into an upper portion and a lower portion; wherein an oxide layer conformally covers an upper portion of said substantially vertical sides; wherein said upper portion extends vertically downward from an upper surface of a topmost cell layer to a point above said bottom electrode; and said lower portion of said substantially vertical sides extends vertically downward to said bottom electrode and is not so covered.