Perpendicular Magnetic Tunneling

Junction Device Fabrication

Onri Jay Benally
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jian-Ping Wang
Minnesota Nano Center

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 Applications
Spin-Torque Transfer
Magnetoresistive Random
Access Memory (STT-
MRAM)

3-D All Spin logic (ASL)

Quantum Computing

1. . S. Yuasa, R. Matsumoto, A. Fukushima, H. Kubota, K. Yakushiji, T. Nakamura, Y. Suzuki and K. Ando. (2009). Tunnel Magnetoresistance Effect and Its Applications.
2. M. Sharad, K. Yogendra, Kon-Woo Kwon and K. Roy. (2013). Design of ultra high density and low power computational blocks using nano-magnets.
3. A. Daley. (2011). Qubits and The Power of Quantum Computing. Retrieved from: http://qoqms.phys.strath.ac.uk/research_qc.html 2
Spintronic Devices
• Short for “spin transport electronics”
• Based on intrinsic property of electron spin
• 2 basic states: spin-up & spin-down
• Uses ubiquitous ferromagnetic materials
• Altering of magnetic states in materials at the atomic
level
• Great for storage and memory (non-volatile)

This is where MTJs come from

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What is a Magnetic Tunneling Junction?

4. Bohac, C., (2013), Comparing Technologies: MRAM vs. FRAM, 1-6

This is what MTJs do

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Magnetoresistance & Recording Density

Addressing the issue of information

5. S. Yuasa, R. Matsumoto, A. Fukushima, H. Kubota, K. Yakushiji, T. Nakamura, Y. Suzuki storage
and K. Ando. (2009). Tunnel Magnetoresistance Effect and Its Applications.
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 Magnetoresistance on a Graph
• Ratio associated with relative
difference
∆𝑅 𝑅𝐴𝑃 −𝑅𝑃
• TMR= =
𝑅 𝑅𝑃

6. Chang, L., Wang, M., Liu, L., Lou, S., Xiao, P. (2007) A Brief What magnetoresistance looks like
Introduction To Giant Magnetoresistance. 1-11.
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 Advantages of p-MTJs
• High thermal stability
• Lower critical current densities for high-speed spin transfer torque (STT) switching
• Ultra-low power consumption ~49 -100μA Perpendicular MTJ
In-Plane MTJ
• Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)
• High density of magnetic moments

7. A. V. Khvalkovskiy et al. (2013) Basic principles of

STT-MRAM cell operation in memory arrays.
p-MTJs vs. In-Plane MTJs
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 Project Goal
• Use of quantum spin properties in various stacks of magnetic materials for:
• Ultra-high density • Spintronic memory • High thermal stability
• Ultra-low energy • Logic devices • Scalability

• Enhancing tunneling magnetoresistance of multilayers in p-MTJs

• MgO-based devices

• Patterning the PMA MTJ devices and developing stacks

Au/Ti Contact
FePd
MgO
Co/Pd
Au/Ti Contact
SiO2 Substrate
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 Fabrication & Materials
• Patterning & development using ion and optical lithography techniques
• Molecular Beam Epitaxial Sputtering
• Mask-Aligned UV Exposure
• Physical Vapor Deposition
• Ion Mill Etching
• Rapid Thermal Anneal

• Large PMA Ferromagnetic Monolayers- CoFeB, Fe, Co/Pd, FePd, Cr

• Contacts- Ti/Au

How to make MTJs

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 Processing Steps
1. Prepare substrate
• 2 cm² wafer cut
• Remove resistance- run ultrasonic bath
• Acetone, Methanol, Isopropyl, & N2 dry
• Photoresist (NR71) & run spin-coat
• 300 rpm- 3 sec
• 3000 rpm- 45 sec
• Bake @ 120C – 1 min

Begin experiment
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 Processing Steps (Continued)
2. UV Lithography 3. Develop
• Run Karl Suss: • RD6 developer-
• Hard contact (30-35) sec
• DI water- 1 min
• 27 sec exposure
• N2 dry
• 100 μm gap
• Microscope-
• Microscope-inspect features inspect features
• Bake @ 105C- 1 min
4. Ion Etching
Ion mill parameters:
Beam voltage: 200V
Beam current: 70A
Accelerator voltage: 24V
LFN Ar: 6.0
Stage Angle: 75 deg
Keep experiment going
Process time: 15 min
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 Process Steps (Continued)
5. Prepare Sample
• Remove resist w/ acetone & 1165
• Clean w/ Acetone, Methanol, Iso, & N2 dry
• Spin-coat :
• 300 rpm- 3 sec
• 4000 rpm- 30 sec
• Bake @ 120C - 1 min
6. Repeat step 3
• 1165 developer- 35 sec
• Ultrasonic bath
7. Post Anneal
• Set parameters to:
• 250C -1400 sec
• Beam intensity- 4.0
• N2 flow rate: 10
Finishing up experiment
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 Device Testing
• Room & low temperature characterization
• LabView analysis
• Point-probe method
• Wire bonding
• B-Field switching (1.5-3.0 kOe)
T2 T3

Terminal 1
T4

T6 T5

Attaching devices to bias source

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 Operation Verification
• Extrinsic Spin-Orbit Torque (SOT) of monolayers
• Anomalous Hall & Spin-Nernst Effects
• Operation Current draw: ~49 -100μA
• Intrinsic hysteresis loop
• M-H loops

8. Zhang, D., Sun, C., Lv, Y., Schliep, K., Zhao, Z., Chen, J. Y., Voyles, P. M.,
Wang, J. P.. (2018). L10-FePd Synthetic Antiferromagnet Through a Face- Making sure the MTJs work
centered-cubic Ruthenium Spacer Utilized for Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel
Junctions. 24. 14
 Future Work
• Scaling & testing functional nano-MTJs
• Implement material candidates in fabrication procedure
• Co/Pd, FePd, W/Ta, WTe2 –Examples of materials researchers use in our labs including
diffusion barriers

• Projects later stemming from p-MTJs such as:

• Enhancing spin-torque memory & storage
• (All) Spin-Logic

Novel MTJ device fabrication

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Acknowledgements
• Dr. Jian-Ping Wang
• Dr. Delin Zhang
• Thomas Peterson
• Phil Engen
• UMN MRSEC REU

• This work was supported (partially) by the REU Program of

the National Science Foundation under Award Number DMR-
1559833 and through the University of Minnesota MRSEC
under Award Number DMR-1420013.

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