This project is implemented in the program on Advanced NanoElectronic Devices within the national program High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM). The program aims at exploring novel concepts for electronic nano-devices with alternative operating principles and enhanced or novel functionality, enabling new applications particularly in hybrid electronic or smart embedded systems.
The network will provide the PhD student a stimulating consortium to work in, with regular progress meetings where academic and industrial partners meet. The present project will be a direct collaboration with IMEC, Europe’s largest independent research center in Leuven, Belgium (www.imec.be), with a project leadesr from IMEC (Dr.ir. W. van Roy) and TU/e (Prof.dr.ir. H.J.M. Swagten). The candidate is expected to spend periods of research at both locations.
Description of thePhD project
Spin-torque based magnetic domain wall (DW) memories can offer large storage densities by storing multiple bits (domain walls) in a single magnetic nanowire. Stacking of the nanowires in a back-end-of-line (BEOL) process may even allow 3D integration.
This project emphasizes the engineering and application aspects and focusses on key technological issues of magnetic domain walls such as thermal stability, stabilization of DWs at notches or other pinning centers, reproducibility of motion (influence of line-edge roughness, temperature dependence), critical current density, heating, high-frequency read and write elements, and how these evolve as dimensions are scaled towards sub-100 nm wires. TU/e will contribute by engineering novel materials, e.g. with perpendicular magnetization or low damping, allowing for a unique tunability of damping, spin polarization, and pinning potential, all crucial parameters for the efficiency of future DW memory devices.
PhD Engineering and integration of electrical domain-wall memory devices
