Fundamentals of MRAM technology

Developments in portable communication and computing systems are creating a growing demand for nonvolatile random access memory that is dense and fast. None of the existing solid-state memories can provide all the needed attributes in a single memory solution. Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) has the potential to replace these memories in various systems with a single, universal memory solution. Key attributes of MRAM technology are nonvolatility and unlimited read and write endurance. In addition, MRAM can operate at high-speed and is expected to have competitive densities. In this paper we describe several fundamental technical and scientific aspects of MRAM with emphasis on recent accomplishments that enabled our successful demonstration of a 256 kbit memory chip.