Fabrication and Noise Performance of Magnetic Tunnel Junctions for Detection of Bio-magnetic Field

Abstract

MTJ is a small size device, working in room temperature with low power consumption, and is expected to enable detection of bio-magnetic field without liquid He. For the purpose of practical realization of MTJ bio-magnetic sensor, this study evaluated the signal and noise with various MgO barrier thicknesses in MTJ to reduce 1/f noise in frequency domain. Figures show MgO thickness dependence of signal voltage, noise voltage and S/N ratio measured from 18 Hz, 120 nT_p-p input signal. Both signal and noise voltage increased with increasing MgO thickness. From this relation of signal and noise, maximum 154 S/N ratio was acquired by 2.2 nm MgO thickness.