Process-induced magnetic tunnel junction damage and its recovery for the development of spin–orbit torque magnetic random access memory

•This paper addressing the MTJ etching-induced damage issues caused by the RIE process.•CF-Etch etches Ta very fast, and MgO etches very slowly. NH-Etch etches these two materials at a comparable rate.•CF-Etch lowers the CoFeB/MgO interfacial anisotropy, partially destroys the magnetic moment of CoFeB. NH-Etch hardly changes the stack magnetic property.•Through the development of RIE recipes, we have developed 'step' structure, i.e., an etching terminate on the thin MgO barrier layer, and a 'trench' structure, i.e., an etching terminate on the thin Ta heavy metal layer SOT-MRAM.