Local thermal enhancement of magnetic memory cell during programming

A problem associated with the programming of MRAM (magnetic random access memory) has been that the required current is orders of magnitude larger than that needed for many other memory devices such as SRAMs or DRAMs. This problem has been overcome by adding heating lines to the standard array configuration. These lines provide local heating sources located in close proximity to the memory elements so that when a given element is being programmed it is also being heated. The effect of the heating is to lower the threshold for magnetization so that a lower field (and hence reduced program current) can be used. It is also possible to make the base layer of the memory element itself serve as the heating element.