Title :
Endurance Improvement of Ge2Sb2Te5-Based Phase Change Memory
Author :
Chen, Chieh-Fang ; Schrott, A. ; Lee, M.H. ; Raoux, S. ; Shih, Y.H. ; Breitwisch, M. ; Baumann, F.H. ; Lai, E.K. ; Shaw, T.M. ; Flaitz, P. ; Cheek, R. ; Joseph, E.A. ; Chen, S.-H. ; Rajendran, B. ; Lung, H.L. ; Lam, C.
Author_Institution :
IBM T.J. Watson Res. Center, IBM/Macronix PCRAM Joint Project, Yorktown Heights, NY
Abstract :
We describe a cycling failure mode in Ge2Sb2Te5-based phase change memory, based on density difference of GST in different phases and the SET/RESET thermal operations. Voids that develop and merge with each other within GST programming volume after cycling eventually lead to cell failure. By adding suitable amount of doping material into GST, we are able to delay this void formation process and to significantly improve the cell endurance to more than 109 cycles.
Keywords :
antimony compounds; failure analysis; germanium compounds; integrated circuit reliability; phase change memories; thermal analysis; GST programming volume; Ge2Sb2Te5; SET-RESET thermal operation; cell endurance; cycling failure mode; doping material; phase change memory; Conducting materials; Crystalline materials; Delay; Doping; FCC; Phase change materials; Phase change memory; Phase change random access memory; Thermal conductivity; Thermal stresses;
Conference_Titel :
Memory Workshop, 2009. IMW '09. IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Monterey, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3762-7
DOI :
10.1109/IMW.2009.5090589
