The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 03, 2007
Filed:
Sep. 26, 2005
Cheng T. Horng, San Jose, CA (US);
Liubo Hong, San Jose, CA (US);
Ru-ying Tong, San Jose, CA (US);
Yu-hsia Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Cheng T. Horng, San Jose, CA (US);
Liubo Hong, San Jose, CA (US);
Ru-Ying Tong, San Jose, CA (US);
Yu-Hsia Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Headway Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Applied Spintronics, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
An MTJ (magnetic tunneling junction) device particularly suitable for use as an MRAM (magnetic random access memory) or a tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) read sensor, is formed on a seed layer which allows the tunneling barrier layer to be ultra-thin, smooth, and to have a high breakdown voltage. The seed layer is a layer of NiCr which is formed on a sputter-etched layer of Ta. The tunneling barrier layer for the MRAM is formed from a thin layer of Al which is radically oxidized (ROX), in-situ, to form the layer with characteristics described above. The tunneling barrier layer for the read sensor formed from a thin layer of Al or a HfAl bilayer which is naturally oxidized (NOX), in-situ, to form the barrier layer. The resulting device has generally improved performance characteristics in terms of GMR ratio and junction resistance.