Device performance in a fully functional 800MHz DDR3 spin torque magnetic random access memory

Abstract

With the recent sampling of Everspin Technologies spin torque magnetoresistive random access memory (ST-MRAM), the performance gap between the high speed volatile memories of SRAM and DRAM and the non-volatile memories of hard disk drives (HDD), Flash and PCRAM has been significantly reduced. We have demonstrated a fully functional 64Mb DDR3 ST-MRAM built on 90nm CMOS technology. This device combines the high speed operation of DDR3 with 1.6 GT/s (DDR3-1600) and the endurance of DRAM with the non-volatility of HDD, Flash or PCRAM. Full functionality has been verified from 0°C to 70°C at up to 800MHz using a March6N pattern with full memory cycling and 0 fails. The memory element used was a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) with CoFeB-based magnetic layers and an MgO tunnel barrier. This paper compares the performance of ST-MRAM in speed, non-volatility and endurance with the various memory solutions available on the market.