Spintronic Devices for Memory and Logic Applications

Publisher Summary Spinelectronics is a very rapidly expanding area of research and development that merges magnetism and electronics. It aims at taking advantage of the quantum characteristic of the electrons that is its spin to create new functionalities and new devices. Spintronic devices comprise magnetic layers that serve as spin polarizers or analyzers separated by non-magnetic layers through which the spin-polarized electrons are transmitted. It provides a new way to manipulate the magnetization of magnetic nanostructures by a spin-polarized current. Spinelectronics has found applications in hard disk drives and more recently in nonvolatile standalone memories, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM). Furthermore, in addition to MRAMs, hybrid complementary metaloxide-semiconductor (CMOS)/magnetic technology can yield a totally new approach in the way electronic devices are designed. The hybrid CMOS/magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) technology is progressing fast and gradually becomes more and more reliable. This hybrid CMOS/ magnetic technology has very important application in the field of lowpower, reprogrammable, and non-volatile logic.