Investigation of Magnetic Field Attacks on Commercial Magneto-Resistive Random Access Memory

Alexander Holst1, Jae-Won Jang2, Swaroop Ghosh2
1University of South Florida, 2Pennsylvania State University


Abstract

In this work, we use a field-programmable gate array and software framework-based memory testing setup to study the susceptibility of magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) to interference by externally-applied magnetic fields. We use a rare earth magnet field source to compare the transient and residual bit error response due to increasing field strength intervals and under changing magnetic field orientation during memory read and write. Results indicate that the transient and residual error response in MRAM is proportional to applied field strength. Furthermore, MRAM displays resistance to disturbance during read interference and is more susceptible to destructive error during write-cycle magnetic interference.