Measurement method for transient programming current of 1T1R phase-change memory

Author

Kurotsuchi, K. ; Takaura, N. ; Matsuzaki, N. ; Matsui, Y. ; Tonomura, O. ; Fujisaki, Y. ; Kitai, N. ; Takemura, R. ; Osada, K. ; Hanzawa, S. ; Moriya, H. ; Iwasaki, T. ; Kawahara, T. ; Terao, M. ; Matsuoka, M. ; Moniwa, M.

Author_Institution

Central Res. Lab., Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

fYear

2006

fDate

6-9 March 2006

Firstpage

43

Lastpage

46

Abstract

This paper presents a measurement method for 1 transistor-1 resistance (1T1R), phase-change memory (PCM) devices. We fabricated a novel PCM test structure with an internal voltage measurement point, and we monitored the voltage drop between 1T and 1R. The voltage drop was accurately converted to the PCM programming current. This test structure enabled us to measure programming current of less than 100μA with a width of 100ns. This method is essential for measuring the low-power operation of PCMs and other nonvolatile memories.

Keywords

electric current measurement; phase change materials; random-access storage; 1T1R phase-change memory; internal voltage measurement point; nonvolatile memories; transient programming current; Amorphous materials; Crystallization; Current measurement; Electrical resistance measurement; MOSFET circuits; Phase change materials; Phase change memory; Phase measurement; Sputtering; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microelectronic Test Structures, 2006. ICMTS 2006. IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0167-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICMTS.2006.1614272

Filename

1614272