DocumentCode :
1375406
Title :
Assessment of Self-Induced Joule-Heating Effect in the I V Readout Region of Polycryst
Author :
Beneventi, Giovanni Betti ; Perniola, Luca ; Hubert, Quentin ; Glière, Alain ; Larcher, Luca ; Pavan, Paolo ; De Salvo, Barbara
Author_Institution :
Micron Technol., Agrate Brianza, Italy
Volume :
59
Issue :
1
fYear :
2012
Firstpage :
188
Lastpage :
196
Abstract :
The physical mechanisms that regulate carrier transport in polycrystalline chalcogenides, such as Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST), are still debated. Recently, self-induced Joule-heating (SJH) effect has been claimed to be the key factor in explaining the nonlinearity of the I-V characteristics of polycrystalline GST-based phase-change memory (PCM). In this paper, we carefully investigate the SJH occurring in the GST material by analyzing the I-V characteristics of PCM cells at low voltages, i.e., in the memory-cell readout region. To accomplish the study, we use ad hoc fabricated PCM devices allowing an easier evaluation of SJH occurring in the chalcogenide layer. A novel procedure to test the SJH effect is also proposed. A comparison between numerical simulations and compact modeling is discussed as well. Our paper shows that the SJH effect is not sufficient to reproduce the experimental I-V nonlinearity, claiming for new experiments and theoretical investigations. Therefore, this paper can be considered a step forward toward the comprehension of the transport properties of polycrystalline GST, which is a key aspect for robust modeling of PCM devices.
Keywords :
phase change memories; GST material; Ge2Sb2Te5; I-V characteristics; I-V readout region; carrier transport; chalcogenide layer; compact modeling; memory cell readout region; numerical simulation; polycrystalline chalcogenides; polycrystalline phase change memory; self-induced Joule-heating effect; Conductivity; Data models; Heating; Mathematical model; Phase change materials; Temperature measurement; $hbox{Ge}_{2}hbox{Sb}_{2}hbox{Te}_{5}$ (GST); Chalcogenides; SET; electrothermal simulations; phase-change memory (PCM); phase-change random access memory; self-heating;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0018-9383
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TED.2011.2170840
Filename :
6080722
Link To Document :
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