• Journal of Magnetics
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

MacDonald and co-workers recently predicted that high current densities could affect the magnetic order of antiferromagnetic (AFM) multilayers, in ways similar to those that occur in ferromagnetic (F) multilayers, and that changes in AFM magnetic order can produce an antiferromagnetic Giant Magnetoresistance (AGMR). Four groups have now studied current-driven effects on exchange bias at F/AFM interfaces. In this paper, we first briefly review the main predictions by MacDonald and co-workers, and then the results of experiments on exchange bias that these predictions stimulated.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.80-90
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• 2016

Thanks to superior leakage energy efficiency compared to SRAM cells, STTRAM cells are considered as a promising alternative for a memory element in on-chip caches. However, the main disadvantage of STTRAM cells is high write energy and latency. In this paper, we propose a low-cost write filter (WF) cache which resides between the load/store queue and STTRAM-based L1 data cache. To maximize efficiency of the WF cache, the line allocation and access policies are optimized for reducing energy consumption of STTRAM-based L1 data cache. By efficiently filtering the write operations in the STTRAM-based L1 data cache, our proposed WF cache reduces energy consumption of the STTRAM-based L1 data cache by up to 43.0% compared to the case without the WF cache. In addition, thanks to the fast hit latency of the WF cache, it slightly improves performance by 0.2%.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2016

A novel self-reference sense amplifier with parallel reading during writing operation is proposed. Read access time is improved compared to conventional self-reference scheme with fast operation speed by reducing operation steps to 1 for read operation cycle using parallel reading scheme, while large sense margin competitive to conventional destructive scheme is obtained by using self-reference scheme. The simulation was performed using standard $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The proposed self-reference sense amplifier improved not only the operation speed of less than 20 ns which is comparable to non-destructive sense amplifier, but also sense margin over 150 mV which is larger than conventional sensing schemes. The proposed scheme is expected to be very helpful for engineers for developing MRAM technology.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.274-282
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• 2016

This paper proposes code optimization techniques to reduce energy consumption of complex multimedia applications in a hybrid memory system with volatile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and non-volatile spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive RAM (STT-MRAM). The proposed approach analyzes read/write operations for variables in an application. Based on the profile, variables with a high read operation are allocated to STT-MRAM, and variables with a high write operation are allocated to DRAM to reduce energy consumption. In this paper, to optimize code for real-life complicated applications, we develop a profiler, a code modifier, and compiler/link scripts. The proposed techniques are applied to a Fast Forward Motion Picture Experts Group (FFmpeg) application. The experiment reduces energy consumption by up to 22%.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.356.2-356.2
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• 2014

Spin Transfer Torque (STT) is of great interest in data writing scheme for the Magneto-resistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) using Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ). Scalability for high density memory requires ferromagnetic electrodes having the perpendicular magnetic easy axis. We investigated CoZr as the ferromagnetic electrode. It is observed that interfacial magnetic anisotropy is preferred perpendicular to the plane with thickness dependence on the interfaces with Pt layer. The anisotropy energy (Ku) with thickness dependence shows a change of magnetic-easy-axis direction from perpendicular to in-plane around 1.2 nm of CoZr. The interfacial anisotropy (Ki) as the directly related parameters to switching and thermal stability, are estimated as $1.64erg/cm^2$ from CoZr/Pt multilayered system.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.226-239
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• 2013

A number of systems have several on-chip memories with cache memory being one of them. Conventional cache memory consists of SRAM but the ratio of static energy to the total energy of the memory architecture becomes larger as the leakage power of traditional SRAM increases. Spin-Torque Transfer RAM (STT-RAM), which is a variety of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM), has many advantages over SRAM, such as high density, low leakage power, and non-volatility, but it consumes too much writing energy. This study evaluated a wide range of energy consumptions of a two-level cache using NVM partially on a mobile processor. Through a number of experimental evaluations, it was confirmed that the use of NVM partially in the two-level cache effectively reduces energy consumption significantly.

• 한국자기학회:학술대회 개요집
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• 한국자기학회 2008년도 Asian Magnetics Conference
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• pp.4.2-4.2
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• 2008

• Journal of Magnetics
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.491-495
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• 2016

We developed an embedded Object-Oriented Micromagnetic Frame (OOMMF) script schemes for more flexible simulations for complex and dynamic mircomagnetic behaviors. The OOMMF can be called from any kind of softwares by system calls, and we can interact with OOMMF by updating the input files for next step from the output files of the previous step of OOMMF. In our scheme, we set initial inputs for OOMMF simulation first, and run OOMMF for ${\Delta}t$ by system calls from any kind of control programs. After executing the OOMMF during ${\Delta}t$, we can obtain magnetization configuration file, and we adjust input parameters, and call OOMMF again for another ${\Delta}t$ running. We showed one example by using scripting embedded OOMMF scheme, tunneling magneto-resistance dependent switching time. We showed the simulation of tunneling magneto-resistance dependent switching process with non-uniform current density using the proposed framework as an example.

• 한국자기학회지
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.35-40
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• 2014

본 연구에서는 제일원리계산방법을 이용하여 스핀전달토크(Spin-Transfer Torque: STT) MRAM을 구현하는 데 적합한 물질로 알려진 CoFe 합금 박막의 자성과 자기결정이방성에 대해 계산하였다. CsCl 구조의 CoFe 합금 박막의 자기결정이방성을 계산하기 위해 교환-상관 퍼텐셜은 일반화 물매근사(general gradient approximation: GGA)를 사용하였으며 k-점은 $12{\times}12{\times}1$, 절단 에너지는 400 eV을 사용하였다. CoFe 합금 박막의 층수는 5층으로 하였고 박막 표면이 Co 원자인 경우와 Fe 원자인 경우에 $2.2{\AA}$에서 $3.2{\AA}$까지 범위에서 2차원 격자상수에 따른 박막의 총에너지를 계산하였다. 총에너지 계산 결과에 따르면 Co 표면의 CoFe 5층 박막의 총에너지는 $2.45{\AA}$와 $2.76{\AA}$의 두 2차원 격자상수에서 극소치를 가지는데 fcc 형 결정구조를 가지는 $2.45{\AA}$의 2차원 격자상수 박막이 bcc 형 결정구조를 가지는 $2.76{\AA}$ 2차원 격자상수 박막보다 약 160 meV 차이로 더 안정함을 알 수 있었다. 반면 Fe 표면의 CoFe 5층 박막은 상당히 복잡한 총에너지 계산 결과를 보여 주는데 이는 Fe 표면의 CoFe 5층 박막은 복잡한 자성 구조를 가지기 때문일 것으로 판단된다. $2.45{\AA}$의 Co 표면의 CoFe 5층 박막은 표면에 평행한 자기결정이방성을 가지는 반면, $2.76{\AA}$일 때는 표면에 수직한 자기결정이방성을 가지는 것으로 계산되었다.

• 한국자기학회지
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.48-51
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• 2011

본 논문에서는 짧은 전류 펄스를 이용한 미소자기 소자에서의 전류 유도 자화 반전에 대한 매크로 스핀 시뮬레이션 연구를 수행하였다. 자화 반전 전류 분포에 있어서 에너지 장벽이 미치는 효과에 특별히 주목하였다. 자화 반전 전류의 크기 및 분포는 전류 펄스 폭의 감소에 따라 증가했다. 여기서 긴 전류 펄스 폭 영역에서는 에너지 장벽과 자화 반전 전류 분포 사이의 관계가 아레니우스-닐 법칙에 의해 서술된다. 하지만 짧은 전류 펄스 폭의 영역에서는 이 관계가 풀리지 않은 채로 남아있다. 이는 짧은 전류 펄스로 인한 자화 반전이 열적 활성화에 의해서가 아닌 세차 운동에 의해 좌우되기 때문이며, 이를 해결하는 데에 있어서 어려움이 발생한다. 그러므로 포커-플랑크 방정식을 풀어서 짧은 전류 펄스 영역에서의 자화 반전에 대한 정확한 공식을 얻어내는 것이 필요하며 이를 통해 짧은 전류 펄스 영역에서의 자화 반전 양상을 이해 할 수 있을 것으로 본다.