Giant Magnetoresistive Tunneling Transistor

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将展示巨磁电阻比(GMR)隧道晶体管的可行性。GMR隧道器件可能具有50%的室温磁阻(是简单双层磁性三明治的许多倍)，具有高阻和高面密度，并且可以在小磁场(1Oe)下工作。这些设备可以配置为用于存储器、现场传感器、磁放大和磁逻辑，进而可以使电子产品小型化，并大大降低各种应用的功耗。基本的GMR隧道器件由两层铁磁性薄膜组成，中间隔着一层很薄的(20)绝缘层。隧道电流依赖于磁性层的相对磁状态，其方式类似于最近对GMR材料所做的研究。对于隧道晶体管，使用额外的金属线来产生调制两个磁层的磁状态所需的磁场。关于外加电压、材料特性和薄膜厚度以及磁状态的器件电流的表征将用于改进现有模型。我们将介绍隧道晶体管，以说明存储操作、磁场检测、磁放大和磁逻辑。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a Giant Magnetoresistance Ratio (GMR) tunneling transistor. GMR tunneling devices can potentially have a room temperature magnetoresistance of 50% (many times the magnetoresistance of simple two-layer magnetic sandwiches) with a high impedance and high areal density, and can operate with small magnetic fields (one Oe). These devices can be configured for memory, field sensors, magnetic amplifiers, and magnetic logic, which can, in turn, miniaturize electronics and greatly reduce power consumption for a wide variety of applications. The fundamental GMR tunneling device consists of two ferromagnetic films separated by a very thin ((20 () insulating layer. The tunneling current depends on the relative magnetic states of the magnetic layers in a fashion similar to that indicated by recent work on GMR materials. For the tunneling transistor, an additional metal line is used to produce the magnetic field required to modulate the magnetic states of the two magnetic layers. Characterization of device current with respect to applied voltage, material properties and film thicknesses, and magnetic states will be used to refine an existing model. The tunneling transistor will be breadboarded to illustrate memory operation, magnetic field sensing, magnetic amplification, and magnetic logic.