MRAM

Overview

The Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM) group develops advanced concepts in this emerging technology. The goal is to realize cells with improved thermal stability, lower power consumption and/or faster switching. Our research covers material stack deposition, nano-fabrication and electrical test evaluation, for applications as standalone memory and non-volatile logic and more recently in neuromorphic computing architectures.

Research directions

Perpendicular Anisotropy Materials

High energy barriers for spin transfer torque (STT) MRAM cells can be achieved with perpendicular anisotropy magnetic tunnel junctions. Solutions for high density MRAM cells to diameters below 20nm require continuous improvements in perpendicular surface anisotropy, while maintaining high TMR properties.

Perpendicular STT MRAM

Evaluation of MRAM concepts requires simulation of expected reversal mechanisms and electrical characterization of individual cells. We aim at understanding dynamics of magnetization reversal and the expected impact of stack modifications to explore application specific optimizations.

Nanofabrication Challenges

Innovation on dense MRAM using pre-patterned substrates, CMOS integration of multifunctional cells and sub-10nm lateral sizes. Tunnel junction nanofabrication in our platform is essential to evaluate MRAM concepts and performance.

Perpendicular Shape Anisotropy

A solution for sub-10nm cell sizes uses high aspect ratios to generate perpendicular shape anisotropy providing scalable retention at the smallest cell sizes. Spin transfer torque switching is possible in these cells, where the reversal dynamics is now under study.

The team

Former members

Post-docs

Andrey TIMOPHEEV (2014-2017)
Van Dai NGUYEN (2016-2018)
J. Ranier Roiz (2015-2016)
Nikita Strelkov (2016-2019)

PhD

Luc TILLIE (2015-2018)
Nicolas PERRISSIN (2015-2018)
Jyotirmoy CHATTERGEE (2014-2017)
Hieu Tan NGUYEN (2013-2016)
Antoine Chavent (2013-2015)

Process Engineers

Jude GUELFFUCCI (2015-2017)
Nathalie LAMARD (2016-2017)
Guillaume LAVAITTE (2015-2016)

Projects

Samsung SGMI (2014-2017)
ANR Excalyb (2014-2017)
Heumem (2015-2018)
EU-FET Spice (2016-2019)
EU Great (2016-2019)
ERC Magical (2015-2020)

Partners

CEA LETI, Grenoble, France
Institut NEEL, Grenoble, France
Crocus Technology, Grenoble, France
Samsung, San Jose, USA
Singulus AG, Kahl am Main, Germany
Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Radboud Universiteit, Neijmegen, Netherlands

Recent news

Best poster award at INTERMAG 2023 (May 19th, 2023)
Pedro BRANDAO VEIGA is among Best Poster Award winners at INTERMAG 2023 Conference taking place in May 2023 in Sendai, Japan. The title of his poster is “Engineering of Voltage-Controlled Magnetic Tunnel Junctions at Cryogenic ...
Best poster award at INTERMAG 2023 (May 17th, 2023)
Théo FROTTIER is among Best Poster Award winners at INTERMAG 2023 Conference taking place in May 2023 in Sendai, Japan. The title of the poster prepared with Aurélie KANDAZOGLOU, Cécile GREZES of Topological Spintronics team ...
Four years engineer researcher position (May 12th, 2023)
Spintec laboratory is opening a four years engineer researcher position in the framework of the PEPR electronics (part of France 2030 strategy) – project EMCOM (emerging memories for computing). Context: The cost of transferring information between ...
[POSITION FILLED] PhD grant: exploring new designs addressing fabrication and read/write bottlenecks of Perpendicular-Shape-Anisotropy MRAM (April 13th, 2023)
Position: The objective of the PhD project is to explore disruptive fabrication routes, cell and material designs to lift the two bottlenecks, related to fabrication and efficiency of the write operation with a spin-polarized current. While ...
seminar – Measuring MRAM with Scanning NV Microscopy (March 03rd, 2023)
On Tuesday, March 07th 2023, we have the pleasure to welcome in SPINTEC Mathieu MUNSCH CEO and Co-founder of QNAMI. He will give us a seminar at 16:00, entitled: Measuring MRAM with Scanning NV Microscopy Place: SPINTEC ...