Carbon-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 phase-change memory devices featuring reduced RESET current and power consumption

In this paper, carbon-doped Ge₂Sb₂Te₅, integrating from 5% to 15% of carbon content, is studied as an alternative phase-change material. Accurate electrical characterizations were performed both on large and shrinked PCM devices. Compared to pure Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ based reference devices, a wide decrease of about 50% of the RESET current, which translates into a RESET power reduction of about 25%, is observed when 5% of carbon is added to Ge₂Sb₂Te₅. Moreover, an improved endurance up to 10⁸ cycles is obtained while maintaining a programming window higher than 2 orders of magnitude. An increase of about 30% of the activation energy for the crystallization process is also observed. Therefore, this paper suggests that Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ doped with 5% of carbon is a promising phase-change material for future PCM technology.