(A) study of radiation effects on magnetic memory devices

Abstract

The space-related industry, which was previously only a national-led business, is becoming more common and emerging as a new industrial field, such as launching personal satellites or providing private space travel. In space, however, there is radiation called cosmic rays, which causes temporary/permanent errors in conventional semiconductor based electronic devices. To prevent this, radiation hardened design must be made, which increases cost and size. As an alternative device, the magnetic memory device was suggested, due to its metal based nature, it is predicted that errors caused by radiation will not occur. This thesis attempts to prove whether the magnetic memory device is actually stable to radiation in space, and to check whether the next-generation magnetic memory device and its operation method, spin-orbit torque, are stable to radiation. For this purpose, in this thesis, I fabricated a magnetic tunnel junction, which is the basic unit of magnetic memory device, and then the gamma rays, proton beams, and ion beams corresponding to radiation in space, were artificially irradiated to confirm their stability.