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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 46, NO. 6, JUNE 2010

A Study of Write Margin of Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic Random

Access Memory Technology
Tai Min1 , Qiang Chen1 , Robert Beach1 , Guenole Jan1 , Cheng Horng1 , Witold Kula1 , Terry Torng1 , Ruth Tong1 ,
Tom Zhong1 , Denny Tang1 , Pokang Wang1 , Mao-min Chen1 , J. Z. Sun2 , J. K. Debrosse2 , D. C. Worledge2 ,
T. M. Maffitt2 , and W. J. Gallagher2
MagIC-IBM MRAM Alliance,MagIC Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA 95035 USA
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 USA
Key design parameters of 64 Mb STT-MRAM at 90-nm technology node are discussed. A design point was developed with adequate
TMR for fast read operation, enough energy barrier for data retention and against read disturbs, a write voltage satisfying the long term
reliability against dielectric breakdown and a write bit error rate below 1009 . A direct experimental method was developed to determine
the data retention lifetime that avoids the discrepancy in the energy barrier values obtained with spin current- and field-driven switching
measurements. Other parameters detrimental to write margins such as backhopping and the existence of a low breakdown population
are discussed. At low bit-error regime, new phenomenon emerges, suggestive of a bifurcation of switching modes. The dependence of the
bifurcated switching threshold on write pulse width, operating temperature, junction dimensions and external field were studied. These
show bifurcated switching to be strongly influenced by thermal fluctuation related to the spatially inhomogeneous free layer magnetization. An external field along easy axis direction assisting switching was shown to be effective for significantly reducing the percentage of
MTJs showing bifurcated switching.
Index TermsBifurcated switching, magnetic random access memory, magnetic tunneling junction, spin torque.

I. INTRODUCTION
PIN torque transfer (STT) MRAM has been intensively
studied as a candidate for future memory applications due
to its nonvolatility, fast write-time, and scalability with CMOS
technology [1], [2]. The critical element of the STT-MRAM
is the magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) with an MgO barrier
which can provide high tunneling magnetoresistance
up to 1056% at room temperature [3]. Utilizing the STT induced switching as the writing mechanism also has a scaling
advantage: upon junction size reduction, the current needed to
switch the free layer orientation is decreased. However, magnetic thermal fluctuation can be significant for room temperature operation of magnetic memory cells below 100 nm, as it
affects STT switchings speed and threshold distribution. For
reliable write, the write current has to be high enough to ensure all devices are switched to desired states, while still remain low enough to avoid junction barrier breakdown. Currently, MTJs with a 1.2 nm or less Mg-oxide layer are necessary
due to the requirement of a low resistance-area product
for a reasonably low write voltage. The dielectric breakdown
of such thin MgO barriers under voltage/current stress therefore
becomes critical to the success of STT-MRAM technology. The
reliability of the thin oxide against breakdown determines the
upper limit of the programming voltage. To commercialize the
bit error rate has to
STT-MRAM with 64 Mb density, a
be achieved in both read and write operations. The key challenge in realizing this is the write margin between the minimum
programming voltage and the dielectric breakdown of MgO for

Manuscript received October 31, 2009; revised February 01, 2010; accepted
February 01, 2010. Current version published May 19, 2010. Corresponding
author: T. Min (e-mail: tai.min@headway.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2043069

a magnetic free layer with adequate thermal energy barrier for

reversal.
In this paper, we will discuss the key design parameters like
programming voltage, breakdown distribution, and thermal energy barrier with an emphasis on the experimental study of those
factors effects on the write error rate and the write margin. Particularly, we report new experimental discoveries of a low probability bifurcation of switching modes. Such bifurcated switch
increases programming voltage, and degrades the write margin
and thus should be understood and eliminated.
II. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Test chips with 4-k to 1-M bit fully integrated with 90-nm
CMOS technology have been built to study various parameters
critical to the development of STT-MRAM product. These
tests quantify the breakdown distributions [4], back-hopping
[5][7] and programming voltages with bit error rate (BER)
[9]. The MTJ structure is seed
down to the level of
layer/PtMn/CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB/capping
layer
type and was patterned using 248-nm lithography and reactive
ion etching into elliptical pillars. The MTJ dimensions studied
160 to
nm . The MgO
are in the range of 55
thickness is under 1.2 nm and the
value ranges from
m . To obtain the breakdown distributions, 2 k
4 k MTJs were tested destructively via a sequence of square
voltage pulses with pulse widths and heights incremented until
device breakdown. The MTJ resistance was monitored by
measuring its current under 100 mV bias across the full circuit
including lead and FET resistances each time after the stress
voltage pulse. Both stress voltage and resistance measurements
were performed through the same pads, an equivalent 2-point
probe configuration that includes CMOS multiplexing circuits
for junction array addressing. The total parasitic resistance was
estimated around 170 . A positive bias corresponds to the
current flowing from the free layer to the reference layer.

0018-9464/$26.00 2010 IEEE

MIN et al.: STUDY OF WRITE MARGIN OF SPIN TORQUE TRANSFER MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

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III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

For a 1 T-1 MTJ 64 Mb STT-MRAM product, there are several aspects that need to be considered concurrently: 1) high
and low resistance distribution for fast read; 2) enough
energy barrier against read and thermal disturbs; 3) low programming current/voltage for compact cell size 4) robust tunrange studied here, the
neling barrier for reliability. In the
value at 50 mV is around 120% with standard deviation
of
and parallel resistance
around 3.6% and 4.0% of
their means, respectively. The separation between the high and
, adequate for read. The
low resistance means is around
key challenge is to lower the write voltage/current. For this, a
macrospin model [6], [10] is often used to guide the direction
for lowering the write voltage/current
(1)
where
is the critical switching current density at 0 K;
and
are the magnetization and thickness of the free layer;
is effective anisotropic field including crystalline and shape
anisotropy;
is the external field; is the spin transfer efficiency; is the Gilbert damping constant; is the electron
charge, and is Plancks constant. At finite temperature, the
switching threshold is thermally distributed [11], [12], and the
critical switching current density becomes
(2)
where
is the energy barrier;
is the pulse width of
is the inswitching voltage/current; is the temperature;
verse of attempt frequency, and is Boltzmanns constant. The
via
.
switching voltage is related through
The values of
, ,
, ,
, and
have to be balanced
to have lowest switching voltage with enough thermal barrier
and resistance of MTJ
for data retention, adequate
, ,
, were kept as low as the
for read. The values of
minimum data retention requirement allowed; similarly the
value of MTJ was set as low as possible, limited by the
and
for read-out. The challenge is lowering
required
and
and their distributions so as to have the enough
the
write margin between the write voltage for
and the
tunnel junction breakdown voltage distribution.
A. Data Retention
The required energy barrier against thermal disturb has been
is in the
discussed extensively and a value of
range needed to be adequate for data retention. The value
is usually obtained by data fitting to (2). However the value
(and
) thus obtained can vary significantly depending on the
range of pulse widths used, as shown in Fig. 1. Here, the
values of 200 MTJs were measured with pulse widths in two
totally different ranges of time scales: 50 9500 ns and 9.5
9500 ms. The average value of
as a function of pulse width
was plotted in Fig. 1(a) and fitted to (2). The
value obtained
while
from
from the nanosecond range is only around
the pulse width in the second range can be up to a factor 1.83
for the same group of samples. The
value
higher to
can also be obtained by measuring the
at various measuring

Fig. 1. (a) Critical switching voltage as a function of pulse width and (b)
(in Oe) as a function of measurement dwell time (b).

dwell time then fitting this data to the following formula [14],
[15]:
(3)
obtained by this
As shown in the Fig. 1(b), the value of
method can be an additional factor of 2 higher, similar to the
results reported by [16]. This experiment indicates that it is not
by simply fitting to (2), especially when
accurate to obtain
the pulse width is on the nano-second scale. The discrepancy beobtained with and without spin current
tween the values of
could be due to the fact that the spin current injected into MTJ
can induce nonuniform magnetization distributions [17], [18]
which invalidate the macrospin assumption used to derive (2).
obtained without spin current is more
For data retention, the
relevant. To determine what value and distribution of
(and
hence ) is required for adequate data retention, we adopted a
direct approach of determining the thermally induced switching
probability (TISP) function for MTJs with various volumes,
s and baking times by measuring the switched devices after
being stored at elevated temperature for various time periods
without external magnetic fields. 4-k test chips were used in this
experiment. For a given MTJ design, the percentage of switched
devices depends on baking temperature, duration, and junction
. The percentage of switched device vs Hc gives TISP as
a function of Hc. These TISP data can be fitted very well by
the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a Gaussian distribution with two independent parameters. Once the dependence
of these two parameters of CDF on MTJ volume, baking temperature and time were determined experimentally, the data retention can be estimated for any given MTJ design. For MTJs
nm , the minimum requirement of
with sizes of

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Fig. 2. Weibull plots for various stressing voltage of the MTJ population with
the high breakdown distribution.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 46, NO. 6, JUNE 2010

Fig. 3. Write voltage (V ) at 10 BER versus RA value of MgO for two

different MTJ designs. The V of Design-2 was lowered to be consistent with
the level of the maximum voltage allowed by the long term reliability breakdown
requirements.

and Ave is 190 Oe and 12% for adequate data retention idle
storage at 125 C for 1 year and 1-bit error correction. Details
of this method will be published elsewhere.
B. Junction Breakdown Distributions
For desired junction
, the MgO tunnel barrier is less
than 12 thick. A dielectric at such thin thickness poses new
challenges as the dielectric breakdown was known to have
two distinct distributions [4]. The majority MTJs have high
breakdown value (HBD) while a small percentage of MTJs
exhibit low values of breakdown (LBD). The peak-to-peak
to the HBD distributions can be
separation between the
but only
as high as
for LBD distribution. As described in [4], besides the low
breakdown induced defects, some MTJs with very different
LBD characteristics, behave identically otherwise to the HBD
,
and IV curves of this type
MTJs. The values of
of LBD MTJs were identical to those of MTJs with the HBD
distribution. It is suspected therefore that the LBD is caused
by a spatially nonuniform MgO barriereither in thicknesses,
stoichiometry or nonuniform Boron distribution at the MgO
interface. These result in spatial variation of the tunneling current which can concentrate on spots with low barrier heights,
developing into a breakdown spot. MTJ structure and process
play a dominate role in determining the percentage of MTJs in
the LBD population and have to be optimized to eliminate the
LBD distribution. At present the percentage of LBD MTJ can
be lowered to 0.1% but efforts are still needed to eliminate
LBD MTJs completely.
separation between
In order to determine whether
peak-to-peak value of HBD and
distribution is enough for
a reliable product, time dependent device breakdown (TDDB)
measurements were performed on the HBD MTJs under various stress conditions, as shown by Fig. 2. The measured
TDDB follows the standard Weibull distribution. Following
the approach of [19] and applying a relatively loose criteria
that allows 20% chip failure after ten years of random access
operation with a 30% duty cycle and 2 bit ECC, the maximum
is around 350
allowed voltage across the MTJ
400 mV at an
value
m for current MTJ structure
and processes, as shown in Fig. 3. Also included in Fig. 3 are
of two different
two curves of write voltage at

Fig. 4. BER curves versus applied voltage measured three times for a single
MTJ. An existence of abnormal bifurcated switching process at lower probability is demonstrated.

MTJ designs. The

of Design-2 can marginally meet the
requirement of maximum allowed voltage dictated by the long
term reliability of MgO breakdown. Clearly, continuing efforts
to improve the MTJ design and processes are still required to
and reduce their sigmas in
further lowering , raise
order to widen the write margin.
C. Write Margin: Back-Hopping and Bifurcated Switching
For write margin assessment, BER vs write voltage was rou. For 50
tinely collected on 128 MTJs down to a level of
100 ns pulse widths BER vs pulse height can be fitted very
and read
well by a Gaussian CDF, as shown in Fig. 4. The
values can be determined by extrapolating
disturb voltage
which corresponds
the average BER curve to the level of
to a
. For the Design-2 shown in Fig. 3, the
is around 370 mV and
is around 101 mV, higher than the
100-mv read bias voltage.
However, several new failure mechanisms were discovered
that can significantly erode the write margin. One of them is
the so-called backhopping phenomena [16][19], [27] in which
the magnetization of free layer can switch back to its original
state after a successful write operation. The root cause of the
backhopping is believed to be the abnormal reduction of energy
barrier at high bias, possibly due to the effect of Joule heating,
the impact of field-like term and/or the de-stabilizing of the reference layer interacting with free layer via polarized electrons

MIN et al.: STUDY OF WRITE MARGIN OF SPIN TORQUE TRANSFER MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

Fig. 5. Increasing the pulse width of applied switching voltage can reduce the
low-probability-bifurcated-switching significantly.

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Fig. 7. Reducing the short axis of ellipse can reduce the percentage of MTJ
with low-probability-bifurcated-switching.

Fig. 8. FMR images of two MTJs with same aspect ratio but different short
axis of ellipse. More FMR peaks for MTJ with larger short axis.

Fig. 6. Increasing the substrate temperature from room temperature to 120 C

can significantly reduce the low-probability-bifurcated-switching.

[17][19], [27]. Increasing the value of

can reduce or eliminate the impact of back-hopping on write margin.
Another new phenomenon that erodes the write margin
reported first time here is that for a certain percentage of MTJs,
there exists another switching branch of the BER curve at a
lower BER level, as shown by Fig. 4. This switching branch
also follows a Gaussian CDF distribution, similar to that of
the main BER curve, suggesting that it might be caused by the
bifurcation of switching path but the probability for it to appear
is lower than that for main switching trajectory. We refer to
this type of switching branch as low probability bifurcated
switching (LPBS, type-C). The percentage of MTJs showing
.
LPBS increases as the BER is tested to levels lower than
The LPBS curve is not an occasional abnormality but is highly
repeatable. This is demonstrated in Fig. 4 in which repeating
the BER measurements three times produced identical main
BER and LPBS curves. Fig. 5 shows that the LPBS is strongly
affected by the thermal fluctuationsincreasing the pulse
width of applied voltage from 50 to 200 ns caused the LPBS
to decrease monotonically. This monotonic dependence of
LPBS on the pulse width was found all the way down to 10 ns,
i.e., approaching the precessional switching region. Similarly,
increasing the substrate temperature can also diminish the
LPBS, as shown in Fig. 6 in which the LPBS was reduced to a
as the substrate temperature is modestly
level lower than

increased from room temperature to 120 C. The percentage of

MTJs showing LPBS is also strongly affected by the dimensions of MTJ elliptical junction. Fig. 7 shows that when the
short axis of the MTJ increases from 55 nm to 90 100 nm,
the percentage of LPBS MTJs increases rapidly, independent
of the MTJ patterning process. Process A and B are two totally
different MTJ patterning process, indicating that the MTJ shape
irregularity caused by MTJ patterning process is not a dominant
nm, the aspect ratio of the
factor here. For short axis
ellipse was in the range from 2.0 to 4.0. Interestingly, the percentage of LPBS MTJs does not change much over this range.
To explore the MTJ dimension effect further, FMR spectra as
a function of applied hard axis field were collected for two
devices with same MTJ structure, process and aspect ratio
but different short axes, shown by Fig. 8. The device with the
nm clearly exhibits much more
longer short axis
high order excitation peaks than the device with the shorter axis
nm , indicating that more spin wave modes were
available for device with longer short axis. It is also observed
that for the MTJ design with more spatially nonuniform free
layer magnetization, the percentage of LPBS is higher and
greater number of high order FMR peaks are present. These
two results suggest that the appearance of LPBS is strongly
related to the spatial uniformity of free layer magnetization.
In the previous work [20] on the switching trajectories in the
precessional mode region, the initial magnetization direction is
critical for determining the switching trajectory, the time scale
for observed changes is in the ns or sub-ns region. Experiments
that attempted to change the initial magnetization direction were
performed by applying constant external field and tilting the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 46, NO. 6, JUNE 2010

Fig. 9. Percentage of LPBS MTJs normalized to the percentage of LPBS at

normalized to
and MTJ
is reduced exponentially against the
area for MTJ with dimensions varying from
nm to
nm .

H =0

H
84 2 178

H
1042 345

long axis of ellipse with respect to the reference layer magnetization direction. For the magnetic field applied along the hard
axis of ellipse, 20 40 Oe field along either hard axis direction
can reduce, enhance, create or have no effect on the LPBS. No
visible change of the percentage of LPBS MTJs was observed
for the wafers with tilted long axis MTJs. These results indicate
that changing the initial magnetization direction in our case has
no effect on LPBS and the time scale for LPBS ranges from 10
1000 ns range, suggesting the underlying mechanism of LPBS
is different from the bifurcation switching studied in the precessional region which is usually based on the macrospin model
which assumes homogenous magnetization [21][24].
The LPBS observed here is more of a thermal fluctuation
dominated process with a spatially nonuniform free layer magnetization. Since the LPBS is a thermal activation dominated
process, lowering the thermal barrier may help reduce the
appearance of LPBS MTJs. As shown by Fig. 9, applying an
easy axis field that assists switching can reduce the percentage
of LPBS MTJs significantly for various MTJ dimensions.
Increasing the easy axis field strength, the percentage of LPBS
MTJs can be reduced further. It is interesting to note that
the ratio of the percentage of LPBS MTJs normalized to the
decreases exponentially versus
percentage at
normalized to the product of
and MTJ area. The reason for
this relationship is not known at the present time.
Another interesting new phenomena that was observed when
is present is the appearance of a new
the assisting easy axis
type of LPBS (type-G) which can be fit by the probability distribution function (PDF) of a Gaussian distribution instead of CDF,
Oe. As the pulse width
as shown by Fig. 10 in which
increases from 10 to 200 ns, the peak value of type-G LPBS remains unchanged at 450 mV while its amplitude and sigma is
reduced monotonically, similar to the pulse width dependence
of the amplitude and sigma of type-C LPBS. The type-G LPBS
can be completely isolated from the main BER curve when the
pulse width is greater than 50 ns. Fig. 11 shows the effect of
strength on the type-G LPBS at fixed pulse width, 50 ns in this
case. By increasing the
from 10 Oe to 60 Oe, the peak position of type-G LPBS moves towards lower voltage and the peak
value increases rapidly.
The exact mechanism for the appearance of the two types
of LPBS is not known at this point. The speculation that it

H = 60

Fig. 10. BER curves under assisting easy axis field

Oe showing
a new type of bifurcated switching which follows a Gaussian distribution. Increasing pulse width reduces the peak value and sigma of this type LPBS but
does not change the peak position.

Fig. 11. At 50-ns pulse width, increasing the assisting easy axis field will lower
the peak position and raising the amplitude of type-G low-probability-bifurcated-switching.

is caused by the bifurcation of multiple trajectories of spin

torque transfer induced switching with different energy barrier
and probability needs more concrete evidence. Bifurcation of
switching trajectories of nano-magnet system described by
LandauLifshitzGilbert equation has been studied theoretically [21][24] with findings of the existence of stable limit
cycles (self-oscillation). Experimentally, bifurcated switching
between static state and the self-oscillation, between to two
self-oscillation states [25] and between two C-states [26] were
reported. The MTJ system driven by spin polarized current is
intrinsically a nonlinear open system far from equilibrium [22]
and bifurcation theory is applicable to describing the dynamic
process of this system. However, the fact that for the MTJ
with more inhomogeneous free layers, larger sizes, and thus
more available spin wave modes, more devices exhibit LPBS
suggests that the switching process in our MTJ spin system
is highly noncoherent and complex. It is possible that in this
highly spatial nonuniform magnetization system, local stable
nodes and limit cycles can exist and under the right conditions,
portions of free layer magnetization can be locked into these
local stable nodes or stable limit cycles which will result in the
whole magnetization system failing to switch. The probability
of falling into those nodes/limit cycles should be lower than

MIN et al.: STUDY OF WRITE MARGIN OF SPIN TORQUE TRANSFER MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

that for the main switching trajectory which should be the path
with the lowest energy barrier. Thermal agitation via either
longer pulses or higher substrate temperatures will allow the
spin system of MTJ to find the path with lowest energy barrier
and will also enhance the chance of escaping the local stable
node or stable limit cycle. Clearly, rigorous work on studying
the nonlinear dynamics of LLG equation of highly spatial
nonuniform magnetization system is needed to understand the
underlying physics of the LPBS so that solutions can be found
to eliminate it. The existence of LPBS increases the value of
and could raise the error floor to an unacceptable level for a
STT-MRAM product.
In summary, we have demonstrated that it is feasible to develop an MTJ design and fabrication process to meet the requirements of data retention, long term dielectric reliability with
write and read disturb error rate for a 64 Mb STT-MRAM
product. Nevertheless, continuing effort to reduce the critical
switching voltage/current is still needed and understanding and
eliminating both LPBS and LBD distribution are essential for
the STT-MRAM to be a successful product.
IV. CONCLUSION
Key design parameters of a 64-Mb STT-MRAM product
development were discussed. In the effort to reducing the
switching voltage/current, the values of free layer magnetization, thickness, anisotropic field and resistance-area product
have to be considered concurrently. It was found that there is
big discrepancy between the thermal barrier values obtained
with and without the spin polarized current. An experimental
method was developed to determine the required coercivity and
sigma for a given MTJ dimensions to have thermal barriers adequate for data retention and avoiding read disturbs. Two distinct
breakdown distributions with high and low breakdown value
were found in todays MTJ structure with less than 12-A thick
MgO spacer. For the MTJ population with high breakdown
value, time-dependent-device-breakdown study was performed
which resulted in a maximum write voltage in the range of 350
400 mV. Bit error rates were routinely collected to study
the write voltage and write margin of various MTJ designs.
Backhopping during the write operation was discussed and
eliminating its impact on write errors was shown to require
higher energy barriers. The existence of two types of bifurcated
switching modes was discovered, which are detrimental to the
write margin. These types of bifurcated switching have lower
probability than the main switching path and exist in the both
near-precessional and thermal regions. Their dependence on
pulse width of applied voltage, substrate temperature, MTJ
dimensions and constant external field were investigated. It
was found that an external field along the easy axis to assist
switching can significantly reduce the percentage of MTJ
showing multiple switching modes. Much work is needed to
understand and eliminate the bifurcated switching modes and
the low value breakdown distribution for STT-MRAM to be a
successful commercial product.

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