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Evidence for Thermal‐Based Transition in Super‐Lattice Phase Change Memory
Author(s) -
Boniardi Mattia,
Boschker Jos E.,
Momand Jamo,
Kooi Bart J.,
Redaelli Andrea,
Calarco Raffaella
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201800634
Subject(s) - phase change memory , reset (finance) , materials science , power consumption , lattice (music) , phase transition , set (abstract data type) , optoelectronics , computer science , power (physics) , condensed matter physics , nanotechnology , physics , thermodynamics , layer (electronics) , acoustics , financial economics , economics , programming language
Phase change memory (PCM) device physics comprehension represents an important chapter of future development of the PCM‐based architectures and their placement into the storage class memory (SCM) segment of the memory hierarchy. Here, a reduction of SET and RESET currents by more than 60% with respect to conventional GeTe–Sb 2 Te 3 (GST) alloys is demonstrated by using phase change memory cells containing (GeTe–Sb 2 Te 3 )/Sb 2 Te 3 super‐lattices (SL). Further, it is demonstrated that our SL PCM devices have similar characteristics in terms of the memory transition as conventional memory cells based on GST, even though showing reduced power consumption, indicative of an efficiency augmented SET‐to‐RESET transition. The reduced power consumption may be attributed to an increased thermal resistance of the SL with respect to the bulk GST alloy. This demonstrates that it is possible to engineer PCM with enhanced performance by employing SL structures, enlarging the possibility of employing SL as SCM players.