Sb Rich Ge2Sb5Te5 Alloy for High-Speed Phase Change Random Access Memory Applications
ZHANG Qi1, SONG San-Nian2**, XU Feng1
1Key Laboratory of MEMS of Ministry of Education, School of Electronic Science & Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096 2State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050
Abstract：Sb rich Ge2Sb5Te5 materials are investigated for use as the storage medium for high-speed phase change memory (PCM). Compared with conventional Ge2Sb2Te5, Ge2Sb5Te5 films have a higher crystallisation temperature (～200°C), larger crystallisation activation energy (3.13 eV), and a better data retention ability (100.2°C for ten years). A reversible switching between set and reset states can be realised by an electric pulse as short as 5 ns for Ge2Sb5Te5-based PCM cells, over 10 times faster than the Ge2Sb2Te5-based one. In addition, Ge2Sb2Te5 shows a good endurance up to 3×106 cycles with a resistance ratio of about three orders of magnitude. This work clearly reveals the highly promising potential of Ge2Sb5Te5 films for applications in high-speed PCM.
2012, Vol. 29 
