Taipei Times
Date: Mar 15, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
A team led by National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) professors yesterday announced a
National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) Department of Materials Science and Engineering professor Lai Chih-huang, left, and NTHU Department of Physics professor Lin Hsiu-Hau, right, hold up an MRAM model in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
breakthrough in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) semiconductor research.
MRAM is considered a better memory device than dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static random access memory (SRAM), as it is faster and more energy-efficient, and its stored information remains intact even when it is powered down, NTHU Department of Materials Science and Engineering professor Lai Chih-huang (賴志煌) said.
MRAM works by manipulating its ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers (classes of magnetic materials), but researchers have been working to make the manipulation more flexible, without having to change the MRAM’s external temperature, Lai said.
After adding a platinum layer under the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers, the team succeeded in using a spin current caused by the flow of electrons to manipulate their “exchange bias,” a phenomenon occurring in magnetic multilayers where the antiferromagnetic layer “fixes” the ferromagnetic layer, he said. [FULL STORY]
