Temperature modeling and pulse shaping strategies for energy optimization in 2T-SOT-MRAM

Abstract

A fully 3D model coupling spin, charge, magnetization, and temperature dynamics has been employed to study the two-terminal spin–orbit-torque magnetoresistive random-access memory (2T-SOT-MRAM). To account for heating from tunneling electrons, we applied an asymmetric heating model near the tunnel barrier, revealing that symmetric model can underestimate free layer temperature increase by over 25%. We further employ the model to simulate switching of the 2T-SOT-MRAM under different voltage pulse shapes and show that the pulse-shaping strategies can not only reduce power consumption by more than 30%, but also significantly reduce peak temperature of the device during writing.