Patent ID: 8488376

Claim:
A memory cell comprising: a bit line; a non-volatile magnetic memory element including, a bottom electrode; a seeding layer formed on top of the bottom electrode; a graded free layer formed on top of the seeding layer and having a magnetic orientation that is changeable relative to the magnetic orientation of the fixed layer, the graded free layer being made of nonmagnetic compounds surrounded by magnetic regions, the graded free layer responsive to switching current that changes the magnetic orientation of the graded free layer, the magnetic orientation of the graded free layer defines a state stored by the non-volatile magnetic memory element; a tunnel layer formed on top of the graded free layer; a fixed layer formed on top of the tunnel layer and having a magnetic orientation that is fixed, the fixed layer including, a first sub fixed layer formed on top of the anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer, a synthetic anti-ferromagnetic coupling layer formed on top of the first sub fixed layer and a second sub fixed layer formed on top of the synthetic anti-ferromagnetic (AF) coupling layer; an anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer formed on top of the fixed layer; a cap layer formed on top of the anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer; a top electrode formed on top of the cap layer, wherein switching current is applied bidirectionally through the bottom electrode or the top electrode to switch the magnetization state of the non-volatile magnetic memory element; an access transistor having a source, drain and gate, the drain of the access transistor coupled to top electrode; and a word line coupled to the gate of the access transistor, the bit line and the word line operative to select the memory cell.