MTJ inlab fabrication and detail on various process

A typical MTJ stack used in MRAM application consist of ferromagnetic layer with a spacer
insulator in between. For application in MRAM one of the layer is reference layer and other is free
layer. The magnetization of free layer can be flipped by application of spin polarized current. The
parallel and anti-parallel alignment can be used to store bit 1 and 0. To pin the reference layer SAF
(synthetic antiferromagnetic) has to be used. The SAF couple antiferromagnetically with the
reference layer thus making it difficult to switch. It also prevents the stray field from the reference
layer from affecting the free layer.
The MTJ that we will be designing has stack configuration as shown below.

In the above stack the [Co/Pt]5|Ru|[Co/Pt]4 multilayer is the synthetic antiferromagnetic stack.
Co/Pt multilayer are used for getting perpendicular anisotropy. The MTJ we will be designing will
be a current perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) MTJ. CoFeB (1.2 nm) layer is the pinned layer and the
CoFeB (0.8 nm) is the free layer, between them is the MgO layer where the tunneling takes place.

Fabrication Steps
Our final MTJ design without the encapsulation SiO2 layer should look something like this

Depositing stack
We start with a silicon wafer with 300 nm of SiO2. We use DC and RF sputtering and molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE) for depositing various layer. First we clean the silicon substrate by doing
ultrasonic in acetone for 10 minutes followed by ultrasonic in isopropyl alcohol for 10 minutes.
IPA is used to remove the acetone and organic impurities. The substrate is then cleaned with DI
water and blow dried with nitrogen. We then mount the sample on sample holder of sputtering
chamber. Prior to starting the deposition of our stack we pre sputter all targets to remove the top
layer contamination. The sample is loaded in the sputtering chamber which is at a base pressure
of 5x10-9 Torr by transferring it via transfer rod from the load lock, the load is kept at pressure of
2x10-7 Torr. The sputtering sequence program is loaded and run in the software. First we do
sputtering of 4 nm Ta layer which also serves as bottom electrode. After this subsequent layers till
the pinned CoFeB layer are sputtered using argon plasma at a pressure of 1.2 mT to 2.5 mT
depending target. Metallic target were sputtered by DC sputtering while insulating targets were
deposited with RF sputtering. The MgO barrier is quite important in the design of MTJ. And its
quality is of utmost priority to get high TMR. MBE offers better growth as compared to sputtering.
Therefore for depositing the MgO layer we make use of MBE. Without exposing the sputtered
film to the atmosphere it is transferred to the MBE chambers which is connected to the sputtering
chamber via transfer chamber. MgO target is evaporated using e-beam evaporator set at 6-7 mA

of e-beam. We deposit 1 nm thick MgO and the thickness is monitored with a quartz crystal
microbalance thickness monitor. After MgO deposition we again transfer the film to sputtering
chamber and deposit rest of the layers. Throughout the MBE and sputtering process the sample is
rotated for uniform deposition. After the deposition the film is annealed at a temperature of 300C
and then allowed to cool in set vacuum. Annealing is an important step to achieve coherency
between MgO and ferromagnetic layer for coherent tunneling and also for achieving PMA. The
final stack looks like this

Fig. MTJ films after sputtering and MBE deposition

Patterning bottom electrode mesa

We spin coat the film with maN-2405 which is a negative photo resist and then bake it on hotplate
at 90C for 90 seconds. Appropriate amount of resist to be used is 3 ml and the spin speed used for
all the spin coating was 6000 rpm for 45 seconds. We use mask with 4 micron wide bottom
electrode mesa. The exposed part becomes hard and the pattern is developed with Mad 525 for
approximately 4 mins. We do dry etching using ion miller at a low power of ~ 10 W on the
patterned film in small steps of 10 secs to avoid burning of resist. The film is etched till the bottom
Si/SiO2 wafer is exposed. Thus after etching we have film in form of bottom electrode mesa sitting
on the substrate.

Fig. Film patterned in form of bottom electrode mesa

Electron beam lithography for MTJ nano pillar

The hard resist is then removed by ultrasonic of sample in acetone for 1 minute. Now we need to
pattern the nano pillar. For this we spin coat the sample with ma-N 2405 again and bake it at 90C
for 90 secs. We do electron beam lithography (EBL) on this with a 200x200 nm square pattern
using a software mask. Exposure dose of 250 C/cm2 is used. Once the square is patterned on the
resist

we

develop

it

now

using

AZ300

MIF

for

25

secs.

We perform dry etching then using ion miller. The bottom electrode mesa is etched till the bottom
tantalum layer which serves as the bottom electrode. Because we are doing etching in small step
of ~10 secs its not possible to detect the element composition using SIMS. Therefore we use the
pre-calibrated etching rate. Etching is done at an angle for developing a good etch profile and avoid
redeposition of metal on side walls.

Fig. MTJ nano pillar and bottom electrode

Oxide encapsulation
The patterned nano pillar and the bottom electrode are covered with SiO2 with sputtering to prevent
oxidation of the side walls of MTJ and also isolate it electrically during top electrode deposition.
The nano pillar is still covered with photoresist.

Fig Oxide encapsulation

Lift off
We then perform lift off to open the nano pillar for depositing the top contact. The lift off is done
using acetone. The oxide layer should not be too thick else the lift off agent wont seep in till the
photo resist.

Fig. Post lift off

Top contact deposition

Now the only thing that remain is the bottom and top contact. We first deposit the top contact. First
cover the sample with positive photoresist PFI. Hot plate baking is then done for 90 secs at 90 C.
Using the top electrode mask which is same as the bottom electrode but just used orthogonally we
perform photolithography. Developing is done using AZ300 MIF. Once we have two opening
for top contacts we sputter deposit Cu(100nm)/Ru(2nm). We lift off the remaining resist with the
Cu/Ru layer with the help of acetone.

Fig. Top contact deposition

Bottom contact deposition

The last thing that remains is the bottom contact. We use the same method as in the case of top
electrode. Two openings are obtained by photo lithography patterning of PFI resist and
developing using AZ300 MIF. We then do dry etching in ion miller till the bottom tantalum
electrode is exposed as shown in below figure.

Fig. Opening for bottom contacts

The sample is then sputtered with Cu(100)/Ru(2) and lift off is done using acetone to remove the
resist. The final MTJ looks like this

Fig. MTJ nanopillar with top and bottom