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Thermal-assisted switching, or TAS, is one of the new second-generation approaches to magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) currently being developed. A few different designs have been proposed, but all rely on the idea of reducing the required switching fields by heating.〔 〕 The first design's cell, which was proposed by James M. Daughton and co-workers, had a heating element, an MRAM bit, an orthogonal digit line,〔 and used a low-Curie point ferromagnetic material as the storage layer.〔 〕 In a second and more-promising design, which was developed by the Spintec Laboratory (France) and subsequently licensed to Crocus Technology, the storage layer is made of a ferromagnetic and an antiferromagnetic layer. When the cell is heated by flowing a heating current through the junction and the temperature exceeds the "blocking temperature" (Tb), the ferromagnetic layer is freed, and the data is written by application of a magnetic field while cooling down.〔 When idle, the cell's temperature is below the blocking temperature and much more stable.〔 〕 This approach offers multiple advantages over previous MRAM technologies:〔 # Because the write selection is temperature-driven, it eliminates write-selectivity problems; # It is a low-power approach as only one magnetic field is required to write, and because the cell stability and magnetic susceptibility are decoupled as a result of the introduction of the blocking temperature; and # It is thermally stable due to the exchange bias of the storage layer. ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thermal-assisted switching」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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