4.5 Article

Nanosecond True-Random-Number Generation with Superparamagnetic Tunnel Junctions: Identification of Joule Heating and Spin-Transfer-Torque Effects

Journal

PHYSICAL REVIEW APPLIED
Volume 20, Issue 2, Pages -

Publisher

AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.20.024002

Keywords

-

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study investigates nanosecond superparamagnetic switching in 50-nm-diameter in-plane magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The circular superparamagnetic tunnel junctions (SMTJs) exhibit probabilistic switching of the magnetic free layer, which can be utilized for random number generation. A low-footprint CMOS circuit is proposed for fast and energy-efficient random-number generation, and the device design can be optimized based on the effects of spin-transfer torque and Joule heating.
This work investigates nanosecond superparamagnetic switching in 50-nm-diameter in-plane magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). Due to the small in-plane uniaxial anisotropy, dwell times below 10 ns and autocorrelation times down to 5 ns are measured for circular superparamagnetic tunnel junctions (SMTJs). SMTJs exhibit probabilistic switching of the magnetic free layer, which can be used for the generation of true random numbers. The quality of the random bit streams generated by our SMTJ is evaluated with a statistical test suite (NIST STS, sp 800-22) and shows true randomness after three exclusive OR (XOR) operations of four random SMTJ bit streams. A low-footprint CMOS circuit is proposed for fast and energy-efficient random-number generation. We demonstrate that the probability of a 1 or 0 can be tuned by spin-transfer torque (STT), while the average bit-generation rate is mainly affected by the current density via Joule heating. Although both effects are always present in MTJs, most often Joule heating is neglected. However, with a resistance-area (RA) product of 15 Omega mu m(2) and current densities of the order of 1 MA/cm(2), an increasing temperature at the tunneling site results in a significant increase in the switching rate. As Joule heating and STT scale differently with current density, the device design can be optimized based on our findings.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.5
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available