Characterization of Sn, Zn, In, and Sb-Containing GeSe Alloys for Phase-Change Electronic Memory Applications
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Characterization of Sn, Zn, In, and Sb-Containing GeSe Alloys for Phase-Change Electronic Memory Applications Kristy A. Campbell1, Morgan G. Davis2, and Jeffrey M. Peloquin3 1 Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boise State University, 1910 University Dr., Boise, ID, 83725 2 Materials Science and Engineering, Boise State University, 1910 University Dr., Boise, ID, 83725 3 Chemistry, Boise State University, 1910 University Dr., Boise, ID, 83725
ABSTRACT Two-terminal electronic devices consisting of stacks of chalcogenide layers containing GeTe, Ge40Se60, SnTe, or SnSe have shown promise for application as electronic phase-change memories (Campbell, K.A. and Anderson, C.M., Microelectronics Journal 38, 52-59 (2007)). Here, we report resistance switching in GeTe/ZnTe devices as well as programmable multi-state resistances in the GeTe/SnSe stack structure device. We also report the synthesis of (Ge40Se60)100-zMz alloys where M = Sn, In, Sb, and Zn, along with the corresponding bulk material Raman spectra and differential scanning calorimetry data, used to explore material compositions that may potentially be useful for producing multi-state phase-change memory devices. INTRODUCTION Phase-change electronic memories are resistance-variable memories that rely on the resistance values of a material in different structural phases to define the memory state of the bit. The most well-known example of a phase-change material under study for electronic memory applications is Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) [1]. This material is switched between an amorphous state and a crystalline state to establish the binary bit states of a high resistance ë0í and a low resistance ë1í. In the past few years, an increasingly large research effort within the semiconductor memory industry has enabled the successful development of a commercially viable phase-change electronic memory based on the GST material. The success of the GST binary electronic memory has motivated the investigation of other potential phase-change material systems in order to explore the possibility of creating memories capable of exhibiting multiple memory states with tunable electrical switching parameters. A multi-state memory would provide much higher data storage density than is currently available in the existing memory technologies, such as DRAM and Flash. It would also redefine the uses and operation of field programmable gate arrays and digital logic circuits, providing more opportunities for the development of reconfigurable electronics. Our previous work has shown phase-change memory operation in devices fabricated with layers of chalcogenide materials rather than a single layer (such as GST) [2]. The chalcogenide layers that were tested consisted of a Ge-chalcogenide glass layer and a Sn-chalcogenide layer.
We showed that phase-change operation was facilitated by the migration of Sn ions from the Snchalcogenide layer into the Ge-chalcogenide layer when a voltage with a positive polarity was applied to the electrode nearest the Sn-chalcogenide layer. An important
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