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Laser 3DAP to enhance MRAM manufacturing capabilities

Oxford nanoScience reports that developers of MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) in the Far East are taking a keen interest in the company’s Laser 3 Dimensional Atom Probe (3DAP) from to provide an accurate analysis method to show the atomic level structure in these complex devices.

Oxford nanoScience reports that developers of MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) in the Far East are taking a keen interest in the company's Laser 3 Dimensional Atom Probe (3DAP) from to provide an accurate analysis method to show the atomic level structure in these complex devices.

MRAM is forecast by some to eventually replace DRAM in the semiconductor industry. It stores data using magnetic states rather than electrical charge. High density 16 and 32 Gb MRAM devices are under development and these would enable much greater amounts of data to be stored than in DRAM, with faster access and lower power consumption. It is even suggested that computers equipped with MRAM could start instantly, without waiting for software to boot up.

Oxford nanoScience managing director, Richard Davies said: “The ultra-high density of these devices means that their structures are too small to be examined by even transmission electron microscopy. The Laser 3DAP, however, uses a femtosecond laser to evaporate atoms sequentially from the sample before analysing their mass and original position in the sample. The instrument literally allows us to reconstruct the sample structure atom by atom in 3 dimensions, complete with the chemical identity of each atom.”

“The MRAM structure includes GMR [giant magneto-resistive] and TMR [tunnel magnetic resistive] layers and III-V transistor structures,” he continued. “The Laser 3DAP has already been used to characterise each of these types of structures individually, so should be ideally suited to MRAM investigations. TMR structures can be analysed routinely and the presence of insulating layers presents no problems. Oxide layers as thin as 1nm have been characterised, although significantly thicker ones can also be analysed”.
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