Progress in deposition technology of magnetic tunnel junctions

Abstract

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have already been used for electronics devices such as magnetic read-heads of hard-disk drives and magnetic random memories. As the performance of such devices advances year by year, the requirements for the MTJs are getting strict. In order to fulfill such strict requirements, stack structure and deposition process of the MTJs have also been improved. This article focuses on the magnetic read-heads and the magnetic random access memories, and describes the technical trend of MTJs and progress in sputtering deposition technology.