"MAGNETIC: Team tinkers with magnetic layers to build better MRAM"
Researchers at NVE Corp. said they have achieved the highest spin-dependent junction tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) to date � a 70.4 percent change between two stable states at room temperature � in a magnetoresistive �sandwich� structure. The key, the researchers said, was using CoFeB for both the free and pinned magnetic layers in the structure's magnetic tunnel junction. Since 1995, spin-dependent tunneling in magnetoresistive materials has offered the hope of nonvolatile magnetic RAM as well as more sensitive read heads and magnetic sensors. Advances in materials and techniques have brought steady progress in raising TMR from the 10 percent cited in 1995 to 45 percent in 1999 and 59.5 percent in 2002. Now NVE says it has raised the bar.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040115S0015