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Gain and Fan-Out in a Current-Field Driven Spin Transistor With an Assisting AC Magnetic Field
Katsunori Konishi1 , Takayuki Nozaki2 , Hitoshi Kubota2 , Akio Fukushima2 , Shinji Yuasa2 , and Yoshishige Suzuki1
Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan
We investigated gain and fan-out in a current-eld driven spin transistor that is driven by a current-induced magnetic eld. The basic structure of the transistor consisted of a coplanar waveguide for magnetic eld application and an MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction with high magnetoresistance and low resistance area product. Under an assisting ac magnetic eld and a dc bias voltage of 0.4 V, we demonstrated substantial power gain of 130, current gain of 4.9, and a fan-out value of 5.7. The scaling of the fan-out value in this device is discussed in detail. The current-eld driven spin transistor is proven to be a promising candidate as a basic component of a nonvolatile logic device. Index TermsFan-out, magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), spin transistor, spintronics.

I. INTRODUCTION HE leakage current through the gate insulator is a problem in the next-generation complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices [1]. It hinders further development of CMOS technology. One promising approach to overcome this problem is to use spintronics in which spin properties in addition to the charge degrees of freedom of electrons are manipulated in solid-state systems to provide new functional devices. For example, magnetically sensitive transistors, also called spin transistors [2], [3], have been developed to combine switching and/or amplication properties with nonvolatility. Spin transistors based on semiconductors [4][7], using spin transfer effects [8], or using Coulomb blockade effect [9] have been theoretically and experimentally investigated; however, such transistors have not shown utilizable amplication property at room temperature. Since the discovery of the giant tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in an MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) [10], [11], the MR ratio has been drastically increased to 600% at room temperature [12]. Utilizing this high performance MTJ, the magnetic logic circuits, such as a non-volatile full adder [13], non-volatile eld programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) [14][16], and magnetic coupled spin-torque devices [17] have been developed. Further, MTJ-based new applications, e.g., three terminal devices [18][21] and magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices driven by the spin transfer effect [22] have been realized. The authors proposed a new type of spin transistor [Fig. 1(a)] that is driven by a current-induced magnetic eld [23] (hereafter, referred to as current-eld) using MTJs with high MR ratio and low resistance area (RA) product. In our previous work, we demonstrated power amplication of 5.6, however, the current gain was lower than 1. Since the device is driven by current application, a second MTJ could not be operated under such conditions. In this study, we investigated the amplication properties of the current-eld
Manuscript received July 20, 2011; accepted August 23, 2011. Date of publication September 29, 2011; date of current version March 02, 2012. Corresponding author: K. Konishi (e-mail: konishi@spin.mp.es.osaka-u.ac.jp). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMAG.2011.2170085

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the electrical circuit of the proposed device. (b) Schematic diagram of the measurement setup.

driven spin transistor under an assisting ac magnetic eld. By reducing the effective coercivity in the free layer of the MTJ, we were able to achieve power gain of 130 and current gain of 4.9. We also could obtain a fan-out value of 5.7, i.e., the output power from the rst MTJ can drive 5 additional MTJs. Simple theoretical calculations show that further improvement can be expected by optimizing the element size, the coercivity, saturation magnetization, and thickness of the free layer while maintaining relatively high thermal stability. The device can be a basic component of nonvolatile logic devices. II. EXPERIMENT MTJ structures were deposited on a thermally oxide Si substrate using magnetron sputtering (Cannon ANELVA C7100).

0018-9464/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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The basic lm structure is buffer layers/PtMn(15)/CoFe(2.5)/ Ru(0.85)/CoFeB(3)/MgO(1.4)/CoFeB(3)/cap layers (the numbers indicate the thickness in nanometers). In particular, the thickness of MgO was estimated based on the deposition time and rate calibrated by X-ray reectometry. The RA and MR, which were evaluated by current-in-plane tunneling (CIPT) m and 198%, respectively. The MTJs were [24], are 5.2 patterned into junction pillars ( m in size) with bottom and top electrodes by using electron beam lithography and Ar ion milling techniques. Subsequently, a 60 nm thick SiO layer was deposited on the MTJs to act as an electrically insulating layer. Finally, coplanar waveguides (CPWs) were fabricated on the SiO layer by means of a conventional lift-off method (see Fig. 1). The signal lines of CPWs were aligned perpendicular to the easy axis of the free layer in order to control the magnetization switching using the current-eld. After microfabrication, the sample was annealed in a high-vacuum furnace at 300 C for 2 h under a magnetic eld of 6 kOe. By means of a function generator, successive square pulses were applied to the CPWs, to generate a switching eld around the wire [schematically shown in Fig. 1(b)]. Magnetization switching is induced in the MTJ when the current-eld surpasses the coercivity of the free layer. In real circuits, the MTJ (MTJ-A) is electrically connected with a number of wires (wire-B) in parallel (see Fig. 1(a)) or in series. Magnetization switching in the MTJ-A forces its resistance to change, resulting in a change in the power consumption in wire-Bs. If the current change in wire-Bs is large enough to drive additional MTJs, we can obtain the fan-out function of this device. In this experiment, to investigate the potential of amplication properties of this device, a basic structure consisting of one CPW and one MTJ was used [Fig. 1(b)]. The tunneling resistance was measured by using a dc two terminal method during the application of successive pulses. The voltage of the applied pulses was monitored using an oscilloscope, which was connected in parallel with the CPW. A bias of 40 Oe was applied to compensate the magnetic eld orange peel coupling eld [Fig. 2(a)]. In addition, an assisting ac magnetic eld of 2 Hz and approximately 20 Oe was applied by means of an electromagnet [schematically shown as a curve in the upper side of the Fig. 2(a)]. We can investigate the inuence of the coercivity on the gain property by applying an ac magnetic eld. In this study, we considered an effective Oe to evaluate the possible maximum gain eld while maintaining sufcient nonvolatility. It should be noted Oe corresponds to that [J/m ], where is the uniaxial anisotropy and is the saturation magnetization (assumed to be 1 T for CoFeB). Therefore, even under the assisting ac eld, the thermal stability factor, Vol/k , of the free layer exceeds 60 at room temperature, thanks to the relatively large volume of the free layer, . and T are the Boltzmann constant and temperature. Here, III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 2(b) shows examples of the applied pulses. The application of both positive and negative pulses allowed the control of the magnetization conguration in anti-parallel (AP) or parallel

Fig. 2. (a) A typical example of the MR curve. The application of an assisting ac magnetic eld (20 Oe) is illustrated in the upper side of the MR curve. (b) An example of the pulse voltages applied to the CPWs, as these are measured by the oscilloscope. (c) The resistance change in the MTJ induced by the application of voltage pulses.

(P) states, as seen in Fig. 2(c). The width and maximum amplitude of each pulse are 500 ms and 10 mV, respectively. The resistance uctuation observed in the AP state was attributed to the magnetic domain wall formation, which was induced by the external ac magnetic eld. It should be noted that magnetic switching was never induced solely with the application of the ac assisting eld. Next, we estimate the power and current gain of this device. as the power consumed by the We dene the input power CPW (metallic wire-A) for generating the current-eld, output as the power change in the second metallic power wire-B, depending on the P and AP magnetization states of the as the ratio of the output and MTJ-A, and power gain input power. Specically, (1) The current gain is dened in the same manner as (2) At this point, the power consumed by applying the assisting ac magnetic eld is neglected. Output power and current owing through the MTJ is proportional to and , respectively. Since the resistance of the MTJ depends strongly on the bias and are also voltage, as seen in Fig. 3(a), both mW, the input inuenced by the bias voltage. For current of 1.5 mA and CPW resistance of 6.6 , we caland under the specic bias conditions culated using (1) and (2). , we assume that In order to estimate the maximum the CPW is connected in parallel with the MTJ (see the gure in the right hand side of Fig. 3(a)). Under this condition, becomes maximum when , where is the average tunnel resistance (see the Appendix for details). Consequently, the maximum is expressed as follows: (3) is the voltage applied to the MTJ and MR the where magnetoresistive ratio, dened as .

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output of the rst MTJ. This implies that the current-eld driven spin transistor has the capability to work as a basic element of a nonvolatile logic device if we can reduce the coercivity of the free layer while maintaining relatively high thermal stability. For this study, we applied a dc pulse with a long time duration of 500 ms. When the pulse duration time is reduced to nanosecond order, the current required for switching becomes larger, following the thermal assisted model [25]. Therefore, the fan-out value may be reduced under a gigahertz operation. IV. DEVICE SCALING In the last part of this report, we show the scaling of the fan-out value of this device. The fan-out value is expressed as (5) where we assumed ( is the size of MTJ and factor 3 indicates the aspect ratio of the junction pillars), is the wire resistance, dened as is the resistivity, is the length and is the thickness of the wire, respectively (details of the calculation are included in the Appendix). Fig. 4 shows the expected . fan-out as a function of and the effective coercivity For this calculation, the following values for the wire parameters were used: and nm. According to the experimental results, the MR ratio is , the distance between wire and free layer 100% of MTJ is 140 nm (thickness of the top electrode and the SiO insulating layer) and the RA value is 5 m . Furthermore, we , took into account the inuence of the series resistance which results from parasitic resistance, such as resistance of each electrode. Subsequently, in (5) should be substituted . It also affects the , which can be expressed as by (6) The dot in the Fig. 4 represents the experimental result. The of our device was estimated to be approximately 7 . The obtained result is in good agreement with the theoretical estimate. By taking into account the series resistance, the fan-out value becomes less than 1 when is comparatively large, because the series resistance causes a reduction in the MR ratio. The area above the lines in Fig. 4 represents a region in which . plays affects , two examples of border Since the product (this experiment) and 30 [T nm] are illuslines for trated ( is the thickness of the free layer). Further enhancement of the fan-out value can be realized by increasing the saturation magnetization and/or the thickness of the free layer by reducing . The fan-out value becomes smaller in the deep-submicron range. V. CONCLUSION We investigated the amplication properties of a current-eld driven spin transistor under an ac assisting magnetic eld. A and power and current gain as high as were successfully demonstrated. These improvements made it possible to realize a fan-out value of 5.7. A reduction in the

Fig. 3. (a) Bias voltage dependence of the power gain (gray line). The MTJ resistance for both P and AP states as a function of the bias voltage is also shown. The electrical circuits necessary to obtain the maximum power gain are also schematically shown in the right hand side of the gure. (b) Bias voltage dependence of the current gain (black line) and fan-out (gray line). Inset gure shows a schematic diagram of the electrical circuits.

In contrast, the takes its maximum value when the MTJ-A and wire-Bs are connected in series under the ideal (see the inset of the Fig. 3(b) and the condition that Appendix for details of the calculation). Consequently, the can be expressed as maximum (4) Based on above estimates, we were able to obtain the maximum power gain of 130 [Fig. 3(a)] and current gain of 4.9 [black curve in Fig. 3(b)] at a bias voltage of 0.4 V. This relatively large enhancement could be realized thanks to the reduction in the effective coercivity of the free layer and the large MR ratio. Of particular interest was the fan-out value, dened as the number of MTJs that can be driven by the output current. A fan-out value larger than 2 is required to use this device for logic calculations. Specically, the fan-out value of the device is strongly related to the current gain because the device is driven is by a current. In order to drive the next cell, required for controlling the P and AP states of the additional MTJs (MTJ-B), which are driven by the output of the rst MTJ. For the calculation of the fan-out value, we took into account the real load resistance (equal to the coplanar waveguide), assuming the circuit that is shown in the inset of Fig. 3(b). The gray color curve in Fig. 3(b) demonstrates the bias voltage dependence of the fan-out value. The curve was obtained by the substitution of obtained current gain to (13) in Appendix. We were able to obtain a fan-out value of 5.7 under a bias voltage of 0.4 V, indicating that 5 cascaded MTJs can be driven by the

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Using (8), (7) can be rewritten as (9) By solving the equation , we can get a factor of 2/3. When the size of an MTJ is large enough, the distance between the wire and free layer of the MTJ can be considered negligible. Consequently, the current required for switching can be written as , where is the width of the wire. To estimate the current gain, MTJ-A and n-wire-Bs are assumed to be connected in series, as shown in the inset of Fig. 3(b). The maximum voltage without breakdown of the MTJ-A in this circuit is described as follows: (10) In the case of load resistance, the output current can be described as

Fig. 4. The estimated fan-out value as a function of the MTJ cell size L and the %; m , and effective coercivity. For the calculations, V : V are assumed and nally, R of 7 for the actual device. L. The width of the CPW and The lateral dimension of the MTJ cell is L the thickness of the SiO insulating layer are L and 140 nm, respectively. The area above the lines corresponds to a region in which the thermal stability factor and 30 [T nm]. The dot represents the is higher than 60 when M t experimental result.

= 04

=3

MR = 100 RA = 5

23 3
1

parasitic resistance and high MR ratios were necessary to obtain the highest fan-out value. Through the device scaling, further increase in the fan-out valueas high as 10can be expected by optimizing the element size, free layer thickness and saturation magnetization. In this study, we modulated the effective coercivity of the free layer by applying ac magnetic elds. This approach is very helpful to nd the optimized value of the intrinsic coercivity. Although the ac magnetic eld is not indispensable for the basic operation, it may be useful to enhance the element selectivity while maintaining high thermal stability. A simple wave guide structure can be easily implemented in the proposed device. As already discussed in the development process of currenteld driven MRAM devices, it is difcult to realize the high thermal stability and small switching current at the same time for the case of in-plane magnetized lm. One promising solution is to use a perpendicularly magnetized lm with the spin transfer effect (22). Additionally, microwave assisted magnetization reversal [26] and voltage-induced magnetization switching [27] should be helpful in improving the performance of the proposed spin transistor. APPENDIX For the calculation of the output power, MTJ-A is assumed to be connected in parallel with wire-B. Consequently, the output power can be written as follows:

(11) From (10) and (11), we conclude that (12) and (12) in (2), we Through substitution of obtain the expression for the current gain. The maximum fan-out value is estimated by assuming as described in the manuscript. In this condition, the fan-out value is described as follows:

(13) Finally, (5) is obtained. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was mainly supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under the Spintronics Nonvolatile Device Project. The work of K. Konishi was supported by a Research Fellowship of the JSPS for Young Scientists. REFERENCES

(7) where as and can be described using the constant current

(8)

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