Patent ID: 6992910

Claim:
A magnetic random access memory (MRAM) comprising: a substrate generally parallel to an X-Y plane of an X-Y-Z coordinate system; a plurality of memory cell stacks on the substrate, each memory cell stack extending from the substrate along the Z axis and comprising: N memory cells, where N is three or more, each memory cell comprising a pinned ferromagnetic layer, a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) free layer with an easy axis of magnetization aligned in an X-Y plane and nonparallel to the X and Y axes, and a nonmagnetic coupling layer between the pinned and free layers, the free layer having a switchable magnetization direction aligned generally parallel or antiparallel with the magnetization direction of the pinned layer, wherein the easy axes of magnetization of all N free layers are generally equally angularly spaced by an angle 2θ about the Z axis and the easy axis of magnetization of the free layer aligned closest to the X axis is angularly spaced from the X axis by an angle approximately equal to θ, the angle θ being approximately 90 degrees/N; and a nonmagnetic separation layer between adjacent memory cells in the stack.