Reliability characterization of Phase Change Memory

Phase Change Memory (PCM) has emerged as an attractive candidate for next-generation non-volatile memory devices. For these applications, reliability is determined by the ability to retain the state of data in the device and support a specified number of re-writes without failure. In PCM technologies, retention is limited by the meta-stable amorphous state of the cell. For cycling endurance (re-writes), failure occurs due to either void formation in the active material or contamination of the heating element of the cell. With optimized process integration and cell programming, large array devices based on a 90 nm PCM technology are able to support data retention to 10 years at 85°C and greater than 10⁶ write cycles.