Temperature modeling and pulse shaping strategies for energy optimization in 2T-SOT-MRAM

A fully 3D model coupling spin, charge, magnetization, and temperature dynamics has been employed to study the two-terminal spin–orbit-torque magnetoresitive random-access memory (2T-SOT-MRAM). To account for heating from tunneling electrons, we applied an asymmetric heating model near the tunnel barrier, revealing that symmetric model can underestimate free layer temperature increase by over 25%. We further employ the model to simulate switching of the 2T-SOT-MRAM under different voltage pulse shapes and show that the pulse-shaping strategies can not only reduce power consumption by more than 30%, but also significantly reduce peak temperature of the device during writing. • The fully 3D model, coupling magnetization, spin, charge, and temperature dynamics have been used to simulate 2T-SOT-MRAM switching behavior. • An asymmetric heating model accounting for tunneling electrons has been employed. • Pulse-shaping strategies have been used to show that a 30% decrease of power consumption and significantly lower peak temperature can be achieved at switching.