DRY ETCHING PROCESS AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING MAGNETIC MEMORY DEVICE

摘要

Disclosed is an etching process which is particularly preferable for etching PtMn used in a pinned layer of an MRAM. The dry etching process is characterized in that a layer containing platinum and/or manganese is dry etched using a pulse plasma. Also disclosed is a method for manufacturing an MRAM wherein such a dry etching process is applied for processing a pinned layer. The MRAM comprises a memory unit including a magnetic memory device which is composed of a tunnel magnetoresistive element. The tunnel magnetoresistive element is composed of a fixed magnetization layer wherein the magnetization direction is fixed, a tunnel barrier layer and a magnetic layer wherein the magnetization direction is changeable, which layers are stacked on top of one another.