Overview
The Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM) group develops advanced concepts in this emerging technology. The goal is to realize cells with improved thermal stability, lower power consumption and/or faster switching. Our research covers material stack deposition, nano-fabrication and electrical test evaluation, for applications as standalone memory and non-volatile logic and more recently in neuromorphic computing architectures.
Research directions
Perpendicular Anisotropy Materials
High energy barriers for spin transfer torque (STT) MRAM cells can be achieved with perpendicular anisotropy magnetic tunnel junctions. Solutions for high density MRAM cells to diameters below 20nm require continuous improvements in perpendicular surface anisotropy, while maintaining high TMR properties.
Perpendicular STT MRAM
Evaluation of MRAM concepts requires simulation of expected reversal mechanisms and electrical characterization of individual cells. We aim at understanding dynamics of magnetization reversal and the expected impact of stack modifications to explore application specific optimizations.
Nanofabrication Challenges
Innovation on dense MRAM using pre-patterned substrates, CMOS integration of multifunctional cells and sub-10nm lateral sizes. Tunnel junction nanofabrication in our platform is essential to evaluate MRAM concepts and performance.
Perpendicular Shape Anisotropy
A solution for sub-10nm cell sizes uses high aspect ratios to generate perpendicular shape anisotropy providing scalable retention at the smallest cell sizes. Spin transfer torque switching is possible in these cells, where the reversal dynamics is now under study.
The team
Former members
Post-docs
- Andrey TIMOPHEEV (2014-2017)
- Van Dai NGUYEN (2016-2018)
- J. Ranier Roiz (2015-2016)
- Nikita Strelkov (2016-2019)
PhD
- Luc TILLIE (2015-2018)
- Nicolas PERRISSIN (2015-2018)
- Jyotirmoy CHATTERGEE (2014-2017)
- Hieu Tan NGUYEN (2013-2016)
- Antoine Chavent (2013-2015)
Process Engineers
- Jude GUELFFUCCI (2015-2017)
- Nathalie LAMARD (2016-2017)
- Guillaume LAVAITTE (2015-2016)
Projects
- Samsung SGMI (2014-2017)
- ANR Excalyb (2014-2017)
- Heumem (2015-2018)
- EU-FET Spice (2016-2019)
- EU Great (2016-2019)
- ERC Magical (2015-2020)
Partners
- CEA LETI, Grenoble, France
- Institut NEEL, Grenoble, France
- Crocus Technology, Grenoble, France
- Samsung, San Jose, USA
- Singulus AG, Kahl am Main, Germany
- Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Radboud Universiteit, Neijmegen, Netherlands
Recent news
- Review on spintronics: Principles and device applications (April 01st, 2020)
Atsufumi Hirohata, Keisuke Yamada, Yoshinobu Nakatani, Ioan-Lucian Prejbeanu, Bernard Diény, Philipp Pirro, Burkard Hillebrands Spintronics is one of the emerging fields for the next-generation nanoelectronic devices to reduce their power consumption and to increase their memory ... - Reducing the impact of operating temperature in magnetic memory thanks to perpendicular shape anisotropy (April 01st, 2020)
MRAM is a type of nonvolatile memory that stores the binary information through the magnetic configuration of its main building block: the Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ). In the last decade, the use of perpendicular anisotropy ... - L’Usine Nouvelle met la spintronique à l’honneur (March 28th, 2020)
L’Usine Nouvelle, magazine dédié à l’industrie, met en avant la spintronique avec une série d’articles, dont deux sur des startups de SPINTEC: La France est au top niveau mondial dans la spintronique La pépite ... - Spin accumulation dynamics in spintronic devices in the terahertz regime (March 26th, 2020)
Spin accumulation phenomena frequently occur in spintronic devices due to the difference of electrical resistivities of spin-up and spin-down electrons in magnetic materials. They are balanced by spin relaxation phenomena. These phenomena take place in ... - Hprobe, la pépite française qui veut accélérer le test de mémoires et capteurs magnétiques (February 04th, 2020)
Hprobe passe à la vitesse supérieure. Après avoir levé 300 000 euros en avril 2018, la start-up issue de SPINTEC et spécialiste du test magnétique de composants semi-conducteurs vient de boucler un deuxième tour de ...
