Enhanced Thermal Efficiency in Phase-Change Memory Cell by Double GST Thermally Confined Structure

Author

Chao, Der-Sheng ; Chen, Yi-Chan ; Chen, Fred ; Chen, Ming-Jung ; Yen, Philip H. ; Lee, Chain-Ming ; Chen, Wei-Su ; Lien, Chenhsin ; Kao, Ming-Jer ; Tsai, Ming-Jinn

Author_Institution

Ind. Technol. Res. Inst., Hsinchu

Volume

28

Issue

10

fYear

2007

Firstpage

871

Lastpage

873

Abstract

A novel phase-change memory cell with a double- confinement structure was proposed and fabricated in this work. By having an additional bottom Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ layer under the electrically confined active region, the heat loss can be effectively prevented. The temperature uniformity over the active region significantly improves and so does the thermal efficiency. Therefore, a low I_RESET of about 0.3 mA and a reset power can be achieved. For the SET performance, a pulsewidth as low as 200 ns can be used without compromising the R_SET.

Keywords

germanium compounds; low-power electronics; phase change materials; storage management chips; Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ - System; SET performance; double GST thermally confined structure; heat loss; phase-change memory cell; temperature uniformity; thermal efficiency; CMOS technology; Chaos; Electrodes; Insulation; Phase change materials; Phase change memory; Plugs; Semiconductor materials; Tellurium; Thermal conductivity; $hbox{Ge}_{2} hbox{Sb}_{2}hbox{Te}_{5}$ (GST); Chalcogenide material; phase-change memory (PCM); programming current; thermal nonuniformity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2007.906084

Filename

4317652