Low-field amorphous state resistance and threshold voltage drift in chalcogenide materials

Author

Pirovano, Agostino ; Lacaita, Andrea L. ; Pellizzer, Fabio ; Kostylev, Sergey A. ; Benvenuti, Augusto ; Bez, Roberto

Author_Institution

Central Res. & Dev., STMicroclectronics, Milan, Italy

Volume

51

Issue

5

fYear

2004

fDate

5/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

714

Lastpage

719

Abstract

A detailed investigation of the time evolution for the low-field resistance R_off and the threshold voltage V_th in chalcogenide-based phase-change memory devices is presented. It is observed that both R_off and V_th increase and become stable with time and temperature, thus improving the cell readout window. Relying on a microscopic model, the drift of R_off and V_th is linked to the dynamic of the intrinsic traps typical of amorphous chalcogenides, thus providing for the first time a unified framework for the comprehension of chalcogenide materials transient behavior.

Keywords

amorphous state; chalcogenide glasses; contact resistance; semiconductor storage; amorphous chalcogenides; chalcogenide materials transient behavior; chalcogenide-based phase-change memory devices; low-field amorphous state resistance; low-field resistance; microscopic model; nonvolatile memories; temperature; threshold voltage drift; time evolution; Amorphous materials; Amorphous semiconductors; Crystallization; Nonvolatile memory; Phase change materials; Phase change memory; Semiconductor materials; Switches; Temperature; Threshold voltage; Chalcogenide; PCM; nonvolatile memories; phase-change memory; phase-change memory devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2004.825805

Filename

1303829