US 11,910,721 B2
Perpendicular MTJ element having a cube-textured reference layer and methods of making the same
Yimin Guo, San Jose, CA (US); Rongfu Xiao, Dublin, CA (US); and Jun Chen, Fremont, CA (US)
Filed by Yimin Guo, San Jose, CA (US); Rongfu Xiao, Dublin, CA (US); and Jun Chen, Fremont, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 12, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/373,757.
Prior Publication US 2023/0012255 A1, Jan. 12, 2023
Int. Cl. H10N 50/01 (2023.01); H01F 10/32 (2006.01); G11C 11/16 (2006.01); H10N 50/10 (2023.01); H10N 50/80 (2023.01); H10N 50/85 (2023.01)
CPC H10N 50/01 (2023.02) [G11C 11/161 (2013.01); H01F 10/3272 (2013.01); H01F 10/3286 (2013.01); H10N 50/10 (2023.02); H10N 50/80 (2023.02); H10N 50/85 (2023.02)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of making a perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) element, comprising:
forming a magnetic pinning structure, wherein forming the magnetic pinning structure comprises:
forming a perpendicular synthetic antiferromagnetic (pSAF) stack,
forming an oxide buffer (OB) layer on top of the pSAF stack, and
forming a cube-textured reference layer, wherein forming the cube-textured reference layer comprises depositing a texture starting (TS) layer on top of the oxide buffer layer;
depositing a tunnel barrier layer on top of the magnetic pinning structure;
depositing a magnetic free layer on top of the tunnel barrier layer and having a magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to a film surface and having a variable magnetization direction; and
further comprising: performing a tensile strain quenching (TSQ) process immediately after at least one of depositing the TS layer and depositing the tunnel barrier layer,
wherein performing said TSQ process induces a BCC or L10 superlattice structure and a (100) crystal texture in the TS layer.