Study of Cycling-Induced Parameter Variations in Phase Change Memory Cells

The electrical and thermal parameters of phase change memory (PCM) cells are modified by cycling-induced mechanisms. In this letter, an adaptive cycling procedure is introduced to provide an endurance characterization by keeping the peak temperature at the heater/chalcogenide interface almost constant despite the cell parameters variations. Experimental results on the PCM wall architecture are collected and explained by considering the reduction of the heater electrical/thermal resistances and the impact of crystallization kinetics variation during cycling.