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Several experimental studies are conducted to explain the impact of the electrical properties and structural relaxation (SR) of the chalcogenide materials on the phase-change memory (PCM) cells. A high current or high voltage readout is shown to highly improve the resistance stability of the system.

The article presents and examines a new physical model, which is employed to demonstrate the impact of structural relaxation (SR) of the chalcogenide materials on the reliability of phase-change memory (PCM) cells. The defect annihilation dynamics is also shown to be highly affected by the electrical characteristics of the cells.

Ferroelectric (FE) hafnium oxide is a promising candidate for memory applications. In this paper, endurance, imprint, and retention tests are carried out on FE aluminum-doped hafnium oxide thin films with different electrodes: 1) metal–insulator–metal (MIM) and 2) silicon–insulator–silicon(SIS). MIM devices exhibit higher endurance than SIS devices. However, SIS devices show superior imprint and retention, with an extrapolated retention time-to-failure larger than 10 years at 85 °C. These results are very promising to integrate FE-HfO2 in 3-D structures, either for dynamic random access memory or for NAND applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Threshold switching, i.e., the electrical transition from high to low resistivity in amorphous semiconductors, plays a major role in the program/erase processes of phase-change memory (PCM) devices. Understanding and designing materials and cell structures for optimum memory performance require that accurate models for threshold switching be developed, in both the steady-state and the transient regime. This work presents an experimental and modeling study of threshold switching in amorphous chalcogenide materials for PCM applications. The delay time for the onset of threshold switching from the application of an electrical pulse is explained based on 1/푓 fluctuations of the subthreshold current. A Monte Carlomodel is developed for calculating the statistical distribution of delay times. The model can account for 1) the voltage dependence of the average delay time and 2) the statistical spread of the delay time for both rectangular and triangular voltage waveforms. The delay model is used for a reliability assessment of read disturb in PCM devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]