Download the Recap Slide in PDF format →

The November Technology Transfer feature celebrates the research team led by Professor Andre Mkhoyan at the University of Minnesota’s Analytical Electron Microscopy Lab. Researchers used real-time transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe how spintronic magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) degrade over time when a continuous current is applied. They discovered that the layers within the device get pinched, forming a “pinhole,” which leads to malfunction and eventual burnout. The startling discovery was that this happened at lower temperatures than previously expected.

This research project was performed in collaboration with Prof. Jian-Ping Wang’s University of Minnesota research center, the Nanomagnetism and Quantum Spintronics Lab. As a part of the SRC nCORE SMART Center, industry representatives from nCORE sponsor companies EMD Electronics, Intel, Micron, NIST, Samsung, and TSMC participated in this highly valued research.

This research is particularly significant to industry as this in-situ real time characterization provides detailed information on the structural breakdown of the devices due to atomic level changes happening in the MTJ film. The results of this characterization have demonstrated that breakdown of the films and devices built at the SMART center take place at half the temperature ranges previously predicted and studied by other research groups. The results from this characterization technique will provide valuable information in understanding the operational ranges of these promising devices built for magnetic random-access memory (MRAM).

The project has produced excellent research results, including a recent article highlighted as the cover of ACS Nano (doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c08023) along with a recent patent filing, thanks to the contributions of several highly qualified graduate and undergraduate students. The experience and industry-relevant skills developed by the students during this project are enviable. 

While Dr. Hwanhui Yun and Dr. Jacob Held are continuing their passion in this field by pursuing postdoctoral studies, Dr. Supriya Ghosh was recently hired by Intel. In other celebratory news, Prof. Mkhoyan was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America for his “contributions to understanding electron beam channeling, quantification of imaging and spectroscopy in STEM, and discovery of fundamentally new behavior in crystal point and line defects using STEM.” Congrats, Dr. Mkhoyan!

Visit Dr. Andre Mkhoyan's SRC nCORE SMART Center project, “Electron microscopy study of beyond-CMOS materials” (2861.008), at https://app.pillar.science/projects/2226/overview.