Method of manufacturing magnetoresistive element and manufacturing system for the same

Abstract

Provided are a method of manufacturing a magnetoresistive element and a manufacturing system which are capable of manufacturing a magnetoresistive element achieving further downscaling, i.e., further increase in the degree of integration of the magnetoresistive element while having high magnetic properties. The method includes: preparing a stacked film including one of the two magnetic layers, a layer to form the tunnel barrier layer, and the other of the two magnetic layers, on a substrate; forming multiple separated stacked films on the substrate by separating the stacked film into the multiple stacked films by etching; irradiating side portions of the multiple separated stacked films with ion beams in a pressure-reducible process chamber; and after the irradiation with the ion beams, forming oxide layers or nitride layers on surfaces of the multiple stacked films by introducing an oxidizing gas or a nitriding gas into the process chamber.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation application of International Application No. PCT / JP2014 / 002210, filed Apr. 18, 2014, which claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-197982 filed Sep. 25, 2013. The contents of the aforementioned applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetoresistive element, and a manufacturing system for the same.BACKGROUND ART[0003]A magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile memory including tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) elements utilizing tunneling magnetoresistive effect. The MRAM has been drawing attention as a revolutionary next-generation memory which makes it possible to rewrite data without limitation while achieving as high integration density as the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and as high speed as the static random access memory (SRAM).[0004]The TMR elemen...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention described in this patent aims to improve the magnetic properties of a magnetoresistive element by removing a damage layer, which will increase its yield. The goal is to create a magnetoresistive element that can be further downscaled and still maintain strong magnetic properties. The invention provides a method and system for manufacturing such an element.

Problems solved by technology

Today, however, a degree of downscaling to be achieved in the manufacturing of MRAMs, for example, is greatly different from that in 2007 when Patent Document 1 was disclosed.

Nowadays, the manufacturing of MRAMs is required to achieve a degree of integration about 16 times higher than that in 2007, and the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is not necessarily sufficient to meet such requirements in reality.

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