SPINTRONICS

Guide: Prof Ravi Shankar

Roshan Sebastian VS
USN: 1PI14LVS12
1st Sem Mtech VLSI and ES
5/8/15

The Future Belongs To

Spintronics

OUTLINE
Why Spintronics?
What's Spintronics?
Principle
Applications MRAM
Electronics Vs.
Spintronics
Advantages
Challenges
Conclusion

Why Spintronics ?
Failure of Moores Law :
Moores Law states that the number of transistors on a
silicon chip will roughly double every eighteen months.
But now the transistors & other components have reached
nanoscale dimensions and further reducing
the size would lead to:
1. Scorching heat making making the circuit inoperable.
2. Leakage power increases
RED BRICK WALL
So the size of transistors & other components cannot be
reduced further.

What Is Spintronics ?
In conventional
electronics, electron
charge is used for
manipulation, storage,
and transfer of
information . Charge
scalar
Spintronics uses electron
spins in addition to or in
place of the electron
charge. spin is vector

Basic Principle
In Spintronics , information is carried by orientation of
spin rather than charge.
Spin can assume one of the two states relative to the magnetic
field, called spin up or spin down.
These states, spin up or spin down, can be used to represent
1 and 0 in binary logic.
In certain spintronic materials, spin orientation can be used
as spintronic memory as these orientation do not change
when system is switched off.

Disk Drive

Applications&Fabrication

Gaint Magnetoresistance (GMR)

The basic GMR device consists of a layer of non -magnetic metal between two
two magnetic layers.
A current consisting of spin-up and spin-down electrons is passed through
the layers.
Those oriented in the same direction as the electron spins in a magnetic layer
pass
through quite easily while those oriented in the opposite direction are scattered.

How GMR sensor read data

Current cannot pass through
MediaMagnetization
N

Readbit0

ReadingCurrent

GMR

Current can pass through

N

DigitalData

0
S
Readbit1

SPIN VALVES
If the orientation of one of the magnetic layers be changed then
the device will act as a filter, or spin valve, letting through more
electrons when the spin orientations in the two layers are the same
and fewer when orientations are oppositely aligned.
The electrical resistance of the device can therefore be changed
dramatically.

Tunnel Magnetoresistance
Magnetic tunnel junction has two
magnetic layers separated by an insulating
metal-oxide layer.
Is similar to a GMR spin valve except that
a very thin insulator layer is sandwitched
between magnetic layers instead of metal
layer .
The difference in resistance between the
spin-aligned and nonaligned cases is much
greater than for GMR device infact 1000
times higher than the standard spin valve.

4nm

NiFe (free layer)

1..2nm

Al2O3 (tunneling barrier)

3nm

CoFe (fixed layer)

Ru

3nm

CoFe (pinned layer)

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM)

MRAM uses magnetic storage elements.

The elements are mostly tunnel junctions formed from two
ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a magnetic field,
separated by a thin insulating layer.

MRAM: Reading process

Transistor is ON
Measuring of electrical
resistance of a small sense
current from a supply line
through the cell to the
ground.

MRAM: Writing process

Transistor is OFF
When current is
passed through the write
lines,
an induced
magnetic field is created
at the junction, which
alters the polarity of the
free layer.

MRAM: Writing process

In order to change the
polarity of the free layer,
both fields are necessary.
Only the bit in which
current is applied in both
hard and easy axis will be
written. The other bits will
remain half-select.

SRAM VS DRAM VS MRAM VS FLASH

fast speed

cheap

dense

FLASH
SRAM

no need to
refresh

DRAM
MRAM

non-volatile

consume low
power

Electronics Vs. Spintronics

ELECTRONIC DEVICES

SPINTRONIC DEVICES

1. Based on properties of

1. Based on intrinsic property

charge of

spin

the electron.
2. Classical property.
3. Controlled by an external

of the electron.
2. Quantum property.
3. Controlled by external

electric

magnetic

field in modern electronics.

4. Materials: conductors and

Field.
4.Materials: Ferromagnetic

Semiconductors.
5. Based on the number of

Materials.
5. Two basic spin states; spin-

charges

up

and their energy.

6. Speed is limited and power

and spin-down.
6. Based on direction of spin

dissipation is high.

and

Advantage Spintronics
Low power consumption.
Less heat dissipation.
Spintronic memory is non-volatile.
Takes up lesser space on chip, thus more compact.
Spin manipulation is faster , so greater read & write speed.
Spintronics does not require unique and specialized
semiconductors.
Common metals such as Fe, Al, Ag , etc. can be used.

Challenges
Controlling spin for long
distances
Difficult to INJECT and MEASURE
spin
Interfernce of fields with
nearest elements
Control of spin in silicon is
difficult

Conclusion
Interest in spintronics arises, from the
looming
problem
of
exhausting
the
fundamental physical limits of conventional
electronics.
complete
unlikely

reconstruction

of

industry

is

Embedded device possible

To Quantum computers through spintronics.

Thanks for your attention!!

Any Queries ??