C.M. Choi

Temperature dependence of reliability characteristics for magnetic tunnel junctions with a thin MgO dielectric film

Temperature dependence of the reliability characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a thin (~1 nm thick) MgO dielectric film were investigated by numerical analyses based on the E-model, 1/E-model, and power-law voltage V-model, as well as by measuring time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) degradation. Although the tunneling process giving rise to TDDB is still under debate, the temperature dependence of TDDB was much weaker using the 1/E model than the E-model or power-law model. The TDDB data measured experimentally in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB MTJ devices also showed rather weak temperature dependence, in good agreement with the numerical results obtained from the 1/E-model considering the self-heating effect in MTJ devices. Moreover, we confirmed by interval voltage stress tests that some degradation in the MgO dielectric layer occurred. Based on our findings, we suggest that to characterize the reliability of MTJs, combined temperature measurements of TDDB and 1/E-model analyses taking the self-heating effect into account should be performed.

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown of MgO magnetic tunnel junctions and novel test method

Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), which is used to measure reliability, depends on both the thickness of the tunnel barrier and bias voltage. In addition, the heat generated by self-heating in a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) affects TDDB. Therefore, we investigated TDDB with the self-heating effect for a MgO tunnel barrier with thicknesses of 1.1 and 1.2 nm by the constant voltage stress (CVS) method. Using the results of this experiment, we predicted a TDDB of 1.0 nm for the tunnel barrier. Also, we suggested the use of not only the CVS method, which is a common way of determining TDDB, but also the constant current stress (CCS) method, which compensates for the disadvantages of the CVS method.