Degradation and time dependent breakdown of stressed ferromagnetic tunnel junctions

Citation
J. Das et al., Degradation and time dependent breakdown of stressed ferromagnetic tunnel junctions, J APPL PHYS, 89(11), 2001, pp. 7350-7352
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
Apllied Physucs/Condensed Matter/Materiales Science
Journal title
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
ISSN journal
00218979 → ACNP
Volume
89
Issue
11
Year of publication
2001
Part
2
Pages
7350 - 7352
Database
ISI
SICI code
0021-8979(20010601)89:11<7350:DATDBO>2.0.ZU;2-W
Abstract
Ferromagnetic tunnel junctions are very sensitive to degradation and breakd own, due to the ultrathin (similar to1 nm) tunnel barrier. When the junctio n is stressed with a constant current or voltage, a conductance change of t he tunnel junction is observed. Sufficiently high stress will lead to break down of the junction. As in SiO2 gate oxide reliability studies, the Weibul l distribution plot can be obtained from the time to breakdown data. The de pendence of the Weibull function on the area and the stress conditions is s tudied for the Al2O3 barrier of the tunnel junctions. This is the first ste p of a systematic study of reliability, which is an important issue for the use of tunnel junctions in, e.g., magnetic random access memory applicatio ns. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.