Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM)

Jimmy Zhu
ABB Professor in Engineering

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University

24 August 2004

Computer System

TLB CPU

SRAM L1 Cache

SRAM
SRAM L2 Cache Volatile Memory

DRAM
DRAM Main Memory

Archival Memory Non-Volatile Memory

Disk Drive

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 Static RAM (SRAM)

Cache Memory
Fast:
6-Transistor CMOS SRAM Access time: < 1 ns
= 10-9 second

Expensive:

$100 / MByte

Low Density:

>120 F2

F -- minimum fabrication feature size

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 3

Field Effect Transistor (FET)

Conducting metal plate

Gate Insulating oxide layer

D
Source Drain G
n+ p n+

Semiconductor S

Conducting ground symbol

n-channel FET

MOSFET:
Metal-Oxide-semiconductor-FET

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 How a FET Works: Transistor On

http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/transmodern.html
Active condition:
electron with charge –e
VGS > VT
i.e. Gate
VGG > VT G
VGG +++ + + + + +
Drain
iD
D n+ n+
G
S p D
RD Source

S V DD
n-channel FET

Drain current will

ID
be a function of
gate voltage.
V DD
J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 5

How a FET Works: Transistor Off

electron with charge –e

Cutoff condition:
VGS < VT Gate
G
VT threshold voltage
S Drain
n+ p n+
V D = V DD D
Source
D
G RD

S V DD

No current
Zero Drain current.

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 A Modern CMOS Process
VDD

M2

Vin Vout

M1

gate-oxide

TiSi2 AlCu

SiO2
Tungsten

poly
p-well n-well SiO2
n+ p-epi p+

Dual-
Dual-Well Trench-
Trench-Isolated
p+ CMOS Process

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 7

Dynamic RAM
Main Computer Memory Q
State “1” V=
¾ Individual access time 60 ns C
++++ +++
¾ 10 F2 State “0” V =0
− − − − − − −
¾ $4 /MByte
¾ All “1”s need to be refreshed every 1 ms.

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 Rotational Latency

7,500 – 15,000 rpm

track

sector

Inexpensive: $0.001/1MByte

Rotational Latency
• Average latency: 3 – 6 ms
• Wait until desired sector passes
under head
• Worst case: a complete rotation
7,500 rpm = 8 ms
15,000 rpm = 4 ms

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 9

Hard Disk Drives

18-316 Introduction to Data Storage

18-517 Data Storage Systems Design

Magnetic Force Microscopy Image

of A Disk Surface

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 Price vs. Speed

100 SRAM
Price Per MByte ($)
10 DRAM
1

0.1

0.01
HDD
1E-3

1E-9 1E-8 1E-7 1E-6 1E-5 1E-4 1E-3

Access Time (second)

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 11

Computer System on a Chip?

Can one change the disk drive into a high speed memory chip?

If one can, one can put the entire computer system on a single chip:

TLB CPU

SRAM

SRAM
SRAM

DRAM
DRAM

Disk Drive

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 Magnetic RAM: Historical Perspective

Motorola
4Mbits MRAM Chip
Magnetic tunnel junction
2003

Honeywell
16Kbits MRAM Chip
AMR Technology 1994

Control Data Corp.

1Kbits Ferrite Core Memory
1965

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 13

Remember Magnet !

Magnetic moment can maintain its direction without power !

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 Memory Element
Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ)

Magnetic electrode
State “0” State “1”
m1
Tunnel barrier
m2

Magnetic electrode 2.5

CoFe/Al2O3 (7-20Å) /Co

2.0

Resistance (kΩ)
1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Data Bits
J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 15

Memory Array
“L” “L” “H” “L”
“L”

“L”

“H”

“L”

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 Detailed Structure

State “0” State “1”

Magnetic
moments
are fixed.

Only the magnetic moment of a storage layer is switched back and forth.

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 17

Writing Bits

State “0” I State “1” I

r r
I M M

r
H

M
State “1”

State “0”

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 X-Point Addressing
y
x
I

half-select
elements

I
1.0 H k2 / 3 = H x2 / 3 + H y2 / 3

Y-Component Field (Hk)

0.5

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

X-Compone Field (Hk)

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 19

MRAM Cell

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 4 Mbits MRAM Chip

Freescale 4Mbits MRAM Chip

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MRAM: Dream Memory?

Advantages of MRAM:

9 Nonvolatile (No power needed to maintain memory states)

9 SRAM Speed (~ 1 nanosecond )
9 DRAM Density (~ 20 F2 )
9 Endurance (Infinitely rewritable)

MRAM has the potential to be an universal memory to replace SRAM,

DRAM, FLASH, and disk drives in some applications to become the

Universal Solid-State Memory!

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 A Potential Game Changer

If MRAM replaces SRAM, DRAM or even disk drives:

¾ Instant on systems: No booting from disk drive

¾ Minimum stand-by power (Turn it off!)

¾ Enable computer system to be integrated on a single chip!

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Applications

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 System on Chip (SoC)

Example:
SoC

RF Module
le
n Modu
Functio cessing
)
ting (pro
Compu Data Processing

Memory
ory
NV Mem Memory

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 25

MRAM: Dream Memory?

Present MRAM Technology Shortfalls:

ƒ Relatively high power dissipation (high current)

ƒ Down-size scaling not clear (thermal magnetic stability)

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 X-Point Addressing
y
x
I

half-select
elements

I
1.0 H k2 / 3 = H x2 / 3 + H y2 / 3

Y-Component Field (Hk)

0.5

0.0

99.999% of power is dissipated -0.5

as I2R on the write lines! -1.0

-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

X-Compone Field (Hk)

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 27

Magnetic Cladding
(18-303 Electromagnetics)

Word Line with ¾ The main power consumption

Cladding
arises from the ohmic dissipation,
I2R, in word/digital lines.

Digital Line
with cladding Read Transistor

x5

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 Thermally Activated Reversal
Hx
τrise= 0.3 ns
0.1 µm H x = 0.8H x0
2 ns t
0.2 µm

Angle

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 29

The Potential Universal Memory

SRAM DRAM Disk Drive FLASH MRAM

Speed

Density

Cyclability

Cost

Non-volatility

Power
consumption

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 Conclusions

MRAM: The enabling technology for computer

systems on a single chip!

Only Continued Innovation Will Ensure Future

Competitiveness of MRAM

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 31

Data Storage Systems Track

Fundamentals of E.E.
18-220
Eng. Electromagnetics
Intro. to Data Storage Tech.
18-303
18-316
18-396
Signal & Sys.

18-517
Data Storage Sys. Design
Physics of Appl. Magn. 18-715

Advanced Appl. Magn. 18-716

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 18-517
Data Storage Systems Design
Building
Building aa Virtual
Virtual Disk
Disk Drive
Drive using
using MATLAB/SIMULINK
MATLAB/SIMULINK

Data to be recorded Retrieved signal

Equalizer

Recovered data

Detector

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 33

18-315 Fall 2004

Introduction to Optical Communication Systems

Professor Jimmy Zhu

jzhu@ece.cmu.edu

Course Objective:
Provide a basic understanding of present optical
communication systems and components, as well as
future engineering challenges.
J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 34

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 Bandwidth Explosion

Source: Agilent Technologies

Data Rate Capacity (bits/second)

1P
10 0 T
Video on
10 T demand O.S.
1T
10 0 G Voice-centric DWDM
World
10 G Network
wide web WDM
1G Doubles every 4.7 years
10 0 M
10 M Fiber
Coax
1M
10 0 k Data-centric
10 k Network
1k (Optical)
10 0 Telephone
Doubles every 9 months
10 Telegraph
1
18 5 0 19 0 0 19 5 0 2000 2050

Year

J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 35

Facts
A single optical fiber is capable of transmiting 2x1012 bits
of data per second, which is equivalent to

simultaneously carry more than 30,000,000 phone

conversations, or

200,000 users download (upload) information at

10 Mbits/second data rate at same time, or

download all 380 CDs (each with 1 hour long music)

in 1 second , or

download 30 DVD movies in 1 second .

Present dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)

technology is realizing the full potential of a single optical fiber !

A optical fiber cable may contain up to 200 fibers.

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Fiber-Optical Long-Haul Routes Source: KMI

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Metro Optical Network

Source: Nortel Networks
e.g. 10 Gbits Ethernet

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 18-315 Introduction to Optical Communication Systems
Course Coverage Encoder
Laser
driver
Amp. Decoder

Light laser Fiber receiver

9 How light carries information

9 Generation of light
9 Light traveling in a fiber
9 Amplification of Light

Systems
9 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
9 Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
9 Optical networks

Devices and Components

9 Fiber
9 LED
9 Semiconductor lasers
9 Fiber Amplifiers
9 Optical receivers
9 Optical modulators
9 Optical couplers and switches
J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 39

This course is designed to:

prepare students with up-to-date education ready for
the optical communication and network industry.

Provide students sufficient background knowledge for

further career development in optical communication
systems and networks.

Stimulate students’ ability for innovation.

Train students’ problem analyzing and problem

solving abilities.
J. Zhu, 18-200 Lecture, Fall 2004 40

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Future Optical Internet…

“A road to a world with no borders, no

boundaries, no flags, no countries,
where the heart is the only passport
you carry.”
Carlos Santana

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