Demonstration of CoFeB-MgO magnetic tunnel junctions with high thermal stability and low power consumption -Advancement towards high density spintronics based memories-

The research group of Professor Hideo Ohno of the Center for Spintronics Integrated Systems, the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, and the WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, together with ULVAC, successfully fabricated magnetic tunnel junctions with a diameter reduced to 11 nm. They demonstrated that high thermal stability and low power consumption can be simultaneously achieved by using magnetic tunnel junctions with materials developed at a junction diameter of less than 20 nm. The results indicate that spintronics based memory using magnetic tunnel junctions can be realized at a 20 nm technology node or less where challenging issues for realizing semiconductor based memories are present.