Abstract
The current-in-plane tunneling technique (CIPT) has been a crucial tool in the development of magnetic tunnel junction stacks suitable for Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM) for more than a decade. The MRAM development has now reached the maturity to make the transition from R&D to large-scale production. This will require a metrology to precisely monitor the properties of the MTJ stacks over 300 mm wafers with high performance in terms of reproducibility and repeatability. Here, we present a major breakthrough in the CIPT metrology that can deliver a substantial improvement on the precision of the Resistance Area product (RA) and the Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR) measurements, compared to state of the art CIPT metrology tools dedicated to R&D. On two test wafers, the repeatability of RA and MR was improved up to 350% and the measurement reproducibility up to 1700%. We believe that CIPT metrology now constitutes a very strong candidate for monitoring MRAM production, since it can guarantee the high metrology performance needed for the advent of the MRAM era.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 2017 IEEE International Memory Workshop (IMW) |
Number of pages | 3 |
Publisher | IEEE |
Publication date | 2017 |
Pages | 169-171 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-5090-3274-7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Event | 2017 IEEE 9th International Memory Workshop - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Monterey, United States Duration: 14 May 2017 → 17 May 2017 Conference number: 9 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/7938567/proceeding |
Conference
Conference | 2017 IEEE 9th International Memory Workshop |
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Number | 9 |
Location | Hyatt Regency Hotel |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | Monterey |
Period | 14/05/2017 → 17/05/2017 |
Internet address |