A magnetic memory cell that uses a curved magnetic region to create
magnetic anisotropy is provided by the present invention. The magnetic
memory cell is created from a free magnetic layer, a barrier layer and a
reference magnetic layer. The magnetic layers are constructed such that
they have portions that are curved with respect to a first axis and
straight with respect to a second perpendicular axis. These curved
portions result in a magnetic memory cell that has an easy axis that is
parallel to the first axis and a hard axis that is perpendicular to the
easy axis. In addition, the resulting magnetic memory cell's coercivity is
independent of it's thickness. Thus, the magnetic memory cell is well
adapted to being scaled down without increasing the likelihood of
thermally induced errors.
