Chalcogenide PCM: a memory technology for next decade

Phase Change Memory (PCM) technology is demonstrating the capability to enter the broad memory market and to be a mainstream memory for the next decade. PCM provides a new set of features interesting for novel applications, combining components of NVM and DRAM and being at the same time a sustaining and a disruptive technology. In this paper the PCM technology status is reviewed and future development lines are drawn, showing that the technology maturity achieved, the scaling perspective and the broad application range allow predicting a key role for the PCM technology in the memory market in the next decade.