SELF-ALIGNED NANOTUBE-PHASE

CHANGE MEMORY DEVICE

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Phase Change Memory

Phase-Change Memory

Non-volatile
Fast access time
Large dynamic range
High endurance
High packing density
Radiation resistant
SRAM

SRAM
DRAM

1st
Level
Cache
2nd Level
Cache

Parameter

DRAM SRAM NAND

Flash

PCM

Nonvolatile

No

No

Yes

Yes

Access
time

10 ns

2 ns

25 s

50 ns

Endurance

>1015

>1015

105

1012

Density

1X

1X

4X

2~4X

Voltage

1.5 V

1.5 V

10 V

1.5 V

Main Memory
Hard Disk Drive

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Phase Change Material

Crystalline

www.webelements.com

Amorphous

A. Kolobov et al., Nat. Mater. (2004).

Chalcogenide compound:
Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST)
Amorphous Crystalline
Large contrast in resistivity
Fast crystallization time ~ 1 ns

M. Lankhorst et al., Nat. Mater. (2005).

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Self-Aligned PCM Nanowire

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Motivation
Allow us to build PCM nanowires with different sizes
This provides an excellent platform to study the scalability of the
PCM devices
Observe any size dependent effect on key parameters such as drift
coefficient, activation energy, threshold field, crystallization
temperature.

Phase-change memory is highly

scalable with electrode size

Wong et al, Proc IEEE (2010)

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Experimental Design
Assumption:
width of nano-trench depends on the input power, bias duration and
background temperature
DOE: 4-factor 3*2*2*2 fractional factorial experimental design
X1: input voltage bias (3 levels: 20V, 25V and 30V)
X2: bias duration (2 levels: 5ms and 1s)
X3: background temperature (2 levels: 293K and 373K)
X4: sample (2 levels: S8_22_17 and S8_33_14)

Y 0 1 X 1 2 X 2 3 X 3 4 X 4 exp .error

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Experimental Procedure
Form nano-trench
Use Keithley 4200 pulse mode to change the bias duration and
voltage bias
Use temperature controller to change the background
temperature
Use the optical microscope to verify the formation of the trench
Use AFM to measure the width of the nanowires

optical image:
S8_22_17
25V
1s
293K

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AFM image:
S8_22_17
25V
1s
293K

Image Result

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Data Result
avg
Temperatur width 1 width width width
e (K)
(nm)
2 (nm) 3 (nm) (nm)

Devic Voltage Duration

e
(V)
(ms)
22,17

20

293

133.9 114.2 115.1

121.1

33,14

20

1000

293

126.9 117.7 127.5

124.0

22,17

25

293

129.5

118 129.8

125.8

33,14

25

1000

293

131.4 133.2 146.9

137.2

33,14

30

1000

293

159.1

148 147.2

151.4

22,17

30

293

266 276.1 244.3

262.1

33,14

30

373

340 342.2 338.2

340.1

33,14

20

373

218.6 207.6 218.2

214.8

22,17

20

1000

373

205.8

218 231.4

218.4

33,14

25

373

286.6 254.4 275.5

272.2

22,17

25

1000

373

350.9 325.9 336.4

337.7

22,17

30

1000

373

406 396.3 358.6

387.0

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Normal Probability Plot

Normal Probability plot

for the raw data has
outliers ->
One or more factors
are likely statistically
significant

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DOE Scatter Plots

X 3 is the most important, X 1 the second important, X 4, X 2 weak

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Narrow Trench Formation

30 V, pulse,
On/off: 0.2/20 ms
No. of Pulses: 1000
@225 K
Width = ~10 nm
Depth = ~1 nm

35/15 V, pulse,
On/off: 0.2/0.5 ms
No. of Pulses: 1000
@225 K
Width = 22 nm
Depth = 2.2 nm

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40 V, pulse,
On/off: 1s
No. of Pulses: 1
@175 K
Width = 45 nm
Depth = 38.1 nm

40 V, pulse,
On/off: 1s
No. of Pulses: 1
@175 K
Width = 48 nm
Depth = 11.3 nm

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Thank You

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