Electric-field-induced Three-terminal pMTJ Switching in the absence of an External Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates electric-field-induced switching of a three-terminal pMTJ using a Rashba effective field, eliminating the need for an external magnetic field, with promising speed and energy efficiency for on-chip memory.

Contribution

It introduces a method for pMTJ switching leveraging a Rashba effective field, avoiding external magnetic fields, and identifies heavy metal systems that optimize switching performance.

Findings

pMTJ with thermal stability of 61 switches in 0.5 ns

Switching energy is 6 fJ

Voltage operation margin improved to 0.8 ns

Abstract

Since it is undesirable to require an external magnetic field for on-chip memory applications, we investigate the use of a Rashba effective field alternatively for assisting the electric-field-induced switching operation of a three terminal perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ). By conducting macro-spin simulation, we show that a pMTJ with thermal stability of 61 can be switched in 0.5 ns consuming a switching energy of 6 fJ, and the voltage operation margin can be improved to 0.8 ns. Furthermore, the results also demonstrate that a heavy metal system that can provide large field-like torque rather than damping-like torque is favored for the switching.