Investigation of magnetic field attacks on commercial Magneto-Resistive Random Access Memory

In this work, we use a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based memory testing setup to study the susceptibility of Magneto-Resistive 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 magnetic field strengths and orientation during memory read, write and retention. 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.