An automated test equipment for characterization of emerging MRAM and RRAM arrays

In this paper it is presented a test equipment for the characterization of two different emerging memory technologies like the Thermally Assisted Switching-Magnetic Random Access Memory (TAS-MRAM) and the Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM). The instrument is developed to allow a fast characterization of test array structures and can be potentially adapted for any other non-volatile memory generation. The hardware architecture is based on a PCI S5933 chipset being the local bus interface of a x86-PC that communicates with the units of the system like 14 bits/100 MHz arbitrary waveform generators and 12 bits/70 MHz programmable measurement units. A user-friendly software interface developed in LabVIEW has been implemented to allow large flexibility in changing the test parameters and a fast analysis of the test results. The instrument performance has been evaluated performing the typical non-volatile memory tests such as endurance and disturbs characterizations, running test flows up to 320 hours for MRAM devices and up to 6,137 hours for RRAM devices.