Effects of Alloy Composition on Multilevel Operation in Self-Heating Phase Change Memories

Author

Braga, S. ; Pashkov, N. ; Perniola, L. ; Fantini, A. ; Cabrini, A. ; Torelli, G. ; Sousa, V. ; De Salvo, B. ; Reimbold, G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron., Univ. of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

fYear

2011

fDate

22-25 May 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Although PCM presents good scaling properties, multilevel storage may be required to increase bit density and reduce the cost per bit. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of different phase change (PC) materials based on GST and GeTe on the feasibility of partial-RESET multilevel programming in self-heating device architectures. Through an accurate analysis of electrical and thermal characteristics of these devices, it is demonstrated that GeTeN10% and GST appear to be the best candidates to assure multilevel operation in such architectures.

Keywords

antimony alloys; germanium alloys; phase change materials; phase change memories; tellurium alloys; Ge₂Sb₂Te₅; PCM; alloy composition effect; multilevel storage; partial-RESET multilevel programming; phase change materials; self-heating device architectures; self-heating phase change memories; thermal characteristics; Computer architecture; Metals; Microprocessors; Phase change materials; Programming; Resistance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Memory Workshop (IMW), 2011 3rd IEEE International

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0225-9

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4577-0224-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMW.2011.5873226

Filename

5873226