Time-resolved analysis of the set process in an electrical phase-change memory device

An experimental investigation was carried out on the kinetic nature of the set process in a phase change memory device by combined analyses of set voltage wave forms and time-resolved low-field resistances. As it turned out, the progress of a set process may be measured in terms of three characteristic times in sequence i.e., threshold switching time tth, incubation time for crystallization tinc, and complete set time tset. These characteristic times are supposed to demarcate, in some measure, different stages of crystallization in the memory material during a set process. Each of these times has a strong dependence on input pulse voltage and particularly threshold switching time tth was found to have an exponentially decaying dependence. The latter may be related to the decreasing capacitance of an amorphous phase-change material with approaching threshold switching.