Design and analysis of the reference cells for STT-MRAM

Abstract

STT-MRAM is currently under intense R&D efforts thanks to its high performances such as non-volatility, fast access speed and high density etc. However, it suffers from intrinsic stochastic switching behaviors and high sensitivity to process variations, which make low power reliable reading become a big challenge. This letter presents three designs of reference cell for STT-MRAM sensing. By using an accurate compact model of STT-MRAM cell, we analyze and compare their performances in terms of power, reliability and area.