Title :
Reliability characterization of Phase Change Memory
Author :
Gleixner, Bob ; Pellizzer, Fabio ; Bez, Roberto
Author_Institution :
Numonyx, R&D - Technol. Dev., San Jose, CA, USA
Abstract :
Phase Change Memory (PCM) has emerged as an attractive candidate for next-generation non-volatile memory devices. For these applications, reliability is determined by the ability to retain the state of data in the device and support a specified number of re-writes without failure. In PCM technologies, retention is limited by the meta-stable amorphous state of the cell. For cycling endurance (re-writes), failure occurs due to either void formation in the active material or contamination of the heating element of the cell. With optimized process integration and cell programming, large array devices based on a 90 nm PCM technology are able to support data retention to 10 years at 85°C and greater than 106 write cycles.
Keywords :
circuit reliability; phase change memories; cell programming; cycling endurance; heating element; meta-stable amorphous state; next-generation non-volatile memory devices; phase change memory; process integration; reliability characterization; void formation; Acceleration; Amorphous materials; Contamination; Crystallization; Failure analysis; Nonvolatile memory; Phase change materials; Phase change memory; Research and development; Robustness; chalcogenide; phase change memory; reliability;
Conference_Titel :
Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium (NVMTS), 2009 10th Annual
Conference_Location :
Portland, OR
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4953-8
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4954-5
DOI :
10.1109/NVMT.2009.5429783