This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop prototype Spin Dependent Tunneling (SDT) devices by combining high-speed magnetic thin films and low-RC SDT structures achieved in Phase I. These devices will be fabricated using standard microelectronic photolithography and packaging techniques, suitable for volume production. Sub-nanosecond switching will be demonstrated with these devices which are integrated with integrated circuit (IC) electronics. Fast IC electronics will be implemented using low voltage differential signaling (LVDS). SDT devices exhibit large signal, low switching field, and high resistance, which lead to high sensitivity, low power consumption, and small size and weight, when compared with giant magnetoresistive (GMR) devices. Fast SDT devices will require improvements in both magnetic speed and electronic speed, while existing attractive static properties need to be maintained. Phase II is expected to produce integrated SDT devices with state-of-the-art properties and switching time less than one nanosecond.
Potential commercial applications for this research are expected in high-speed isolators, high-speed magnetic field and current sensing devices, fast magnetic random access memories (MRAM), reconfigurable magnetic logic, read heads, and gigahertz (GHz) inductor/transformers, as well as their derivative products.
