• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.167-167
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• 2011

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is one of the prospective semiconductor memories for next generation. It has the excellent features including nonvolatility, fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance, low operating voltage, and high storage density. MRAM consists of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). The MTJ stack is composed of various magnetic materials, metals, and a tunneling barrier layer. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of magnetic materials should be developed. Among various magnetic materials, FePt has been used for pinned layer of MTJ stack. The previous etch study of FePt magnetic thin films was carried out using $CH_4/O_2/NH_3$. It reported only the etch characteristics with respect to the variation of RF bias powers. In this study, the etch characteristics of FePt thin films have been investigated using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etcher in various etch chemistries containing $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mixes. TiN thin film was employed as a hard mask. FePt thin films are etched by varying the gas concentration. The etch characteristics have been investigated in terms of etch rate, etch selectivity and etch profile. Furthermore, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is applied to elucidate the etch mechanism of FePt thin films in $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ chemistries.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.185-189
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• 2010

Spin polarized tunneling through a hybrid tunnel barrier of a Spin filter (SF) based on a EuO ferro-magnetic semiconductor and an organic semiconductor (OSC) (rubrene in this case) was investigated. For quasi-magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures, such as Co/rubrene/EuO/Al, we observed a strong spin filtering effect of the EuO layer exhibiting I-V curves with high spin polarization (P) of up to 99% measured at 4 K. However, a magnetoresistance (MR) value of 9% was obtained at 4.2 K. The low MR compared to the high P could be attributed to spin scattering caused by structural defects at the interface between the EuO and rubrene, due to nonstoichiometry in the EuO.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.105-113
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• 2004

MRAM uses magneto-resistance material as a storage element, which stores cell data as a polarization of spin in a free magnetic layer. This magneto-resistance material has hysteresis, asteroid curve at the thermal variation, and R-V characteristics for switching the data. Therefore, a macro-model which can reproduce these characteristics is required for MRAM simulation. We propose a macro-model of TMR (Tunneling Magneto Resistance) that can reproduce all of these characteristics on HSPICE. Also we propose a novel sensing scheme, which generates reference resistance having the medium value, ( $R_{H}$+ $R_{L}$)/2, for a wide range of applied voltage and present simulation results based on the HSPICE macro-model of MTJ that we have developed.d.d.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.245-250
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• 1999

The effect of substrate and oxidization time on $substrate /Py/Al_2O_3/Co\;(Py=Ni_{81}Fe_{19})$ tunnel junction was studied. Samples were prepared without breaking vacuum by changing shadow masks in-situ. The resistance of tunnel junctions increased, but measured MR decreased with oxidization time. Negative MR observed for samples of tunnel resistivity lower than 0.17 M$\Omega$ $({\mu}m)^2$. MR resistivity decreased with the change of substrates in the order of thermally oxidized Si(111), Si(100), Coring Glass 2948, Corning Glass 7059. Sign change and the variation of MR was explained with non uniform current effect.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.196-201
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• 2001

The dependence of CoFe interfacial layer thickness and plasma oxidation condition on tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) in Ta/NiFe/FeMn/NiFe/Al$_2$O$_3$/NiFe/Ta tunnel junctions was investigated. As the CoFe layer thickness increases, TMR ratio rapidly increases to 13.7 % and decreases with further increase of the CoFe layer thickness. The increase of TMR with the CoFe thickness up to 25 was thought to be due mails to the high spin-polarization of CoFe. The maximum MR of 15.3% was obtained in the Si(100)/Ta(50 )/NiFe(60 )/FeMn(250 )/NiFe(70 )/Al$_2$O$_3$/NiFe(150 )/Ta(50 ) magnetic tunnel junction with a 16 Al oxidized for 40 sec using a Ar/O$_2$ (1:4) mixture gas.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

An MTJ element not only computes Boolean function but also stores the output result in itself. We can make the most use of magneto-logic's merits by employing the magneto-logic in substitution for the sequential logic as well as the combinational logic. This unique feature opens a new horizon for potential application of MTJ as a universal logic element. Magneto-logic circuits using MTJ elements are more integrative and non-volatile. This paper presents novel 3-bit magneto-logic up/down counters and presents simulation results based on the HSPICE macro-model of MTJ that we have developed.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.276-278
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• 2006

The switching characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) comprising amorphous ferromagnetic CoFeSiB free layer have been investigated. CoFeSiB was used for the free layer to enhance the switching characteristics. The typical junction structure was $Si/SiO_{2}/Ta$ 45/Ru 9.5/IrMn 10/CoFe $7/AlO_{x}/CoFeSiB\;(t)/Ru\;60\;(in\;nm)$. CoFeSiB has low saturation magnetization ($M_{s}$) of $560\;emu/cm^{3}$ and high anisotropy constant ($K_{u}$) of $2800\;erg/cm^{3}$. These properties caused low coercivity ($H_{c}$) and high sensitivity in MTJs, and it also confirmed in submicrometer-sized elements by micromagnetic simulation based on the Landau-Lisfschitz-Gilbert equation. By increasing CoFeSiB free layer thickness, the switching characteristics became worse due to increase of the demagnetization field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.5-32
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• 2000

MRAM, High performance MRAM using MTJS demostrated, fully integrated MTJ MRAM with CMOS circuits, write time ~2.3 nsec; read time ~3 nsec, Thermally stable up to ~350 C, Switching field distibution controlled by size & shape. Magnetic Tunnel Junction Properties, Magnetoresistance: ~50% at room temperature, enhanced by thermal treatment, Negative and Positive MR by interface modification, Spin Polarization: >55% at 0.25K, Insensitive ot FM composition, Resistance $\times$ Area product, ranging from ~20 to 10$^{9}$ $\Omega$(${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$)$^{2}$, Spin valve transistor, Tunnel injected spin polarization for "hot" electrons, Decrease of MTJMR at high bias originates from anode.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.99-104
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• 2004

We have studied to understand the barrier and interface qualities and structural changes through measuring temperature dependent spin-polarization as functions of plasma oxidation time and annealing time. Magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of SiO2$_2$/Ta 5/CoFe 17/IrMn 7.5/CoFe 5/Al 1.6-Ox/CoFe 5/Ta 5 (numbers in nm) were deposited and annealed when necessary. A 30 s,40 s oxidized sample showed the lowest spin-polarization values. It is presumed that tunneling electrons were depolarized and scattered by residual paramagnetic Al due to under-oxidation. On the contrary, a 60s, 70 s oxidized sample might have experienced over-oxidation, where partially oxidized magnetic dead layer was formed on top of the bottom CoFe electrode. The magnetic dead layer is known to increase the probability of spin-flip scattering. Therefore it showed a higher temperature dependence than that of the optimum sample (50 s oxidation). temperature dependence of 450 K annealed samples was improved when the as-deposited one compared. But the sample underwent 475 K and 500 K annealing exhibits inferior temperature dependence of spin-polarization, indicating that the over-annealed sample became microstucturally degraded.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.162-165
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• 2007

We investigated the effects of the capping layer materials on the crystallization of the amorphous top-CoFeB (t-CoFeB) electrode and the magnetoresistance properties of the magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). When the hcp(002)-textured Ru capping layer was used, the amorphous t-CoFeB was crystallized to bcc-CoFe(110). The CoFe(110)/Ru(002) texture relation can be minimized the lattice mismatch down to 5.6%. However, when the fine polycrystalline but almost amorphous TiAl or amorphous ZrAl were used, the amorphous t-CoFeB was crystallized to bcc-CoFe(002). When the amorphous capping materials were used, the evolution of the t-CoFeB texture was affected mainly by the MgO(001) texture. Consequently, the M ratios of the annealed MTJ capped with the ZrAl and TiAl (72.7 and 71.8%) are relatively higher than that of the MTJ with Ru capping layer (46.7%). In conclusions, the texture evolution of the amorphous t-CoFeB during the post deposition annealing could be controlled by the crystallinity of the adjacent capping layer and in turn, it affects the TMR ratio of MTJs.