Magnetic tunnel junctions and their applications in non-volatile circuits

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) have become the basic building blocks of spintronic nonvolatile circuits due to their large tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) values for readout and the possibility to electrically write information into the devices. This chapter focuses on evaluating the performance, challenges,and design parameters of MTJ devices for nonvolatile circuits. The reading, writing, and storing functions are evaluated under the light of the different requirements of nonvolatile circuit applications and utilizing new developments in the design and realization of state-of-the-art MTJs. Finally, examples of the role of MTJs in CMOS-based and beyond-CMOS computing are presented.