R&D: GeTe Ultrathin Film Based PC with Extreme Thermal Stability, Fast SET Speed and Low RESET Power Energy

AIP Advances has published an article written by Yingjie Meng, Laboratory of Infrared Material and Devices & Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Advanced Technology Research Institute, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, Yimin Chen, Laboratory of Infrared Material and Devices & Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Advanced Technology Research Institute, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, and Department of Microelectronic Science and Engineering, School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, and Engineering Research Center for Advanced Infrared Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, Kexin Peng, Laboratory of Infrared Material and Devices & Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Advanced Technology Research Institute, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, Bin Chen, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China, Chenjie Gu, Laboratory of Infrared Material and Devices & Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Advanced Technology Research Institute, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, and Department of Microelectronic Science and Engineering, School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, and Engineering Research Center for Advanced Infrared Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China,, Yixiao Gao, Guoxiang Wang, and Xiang Shen, Laboratory of Infrared Material and Devices & Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Advanced Technology Research Institute, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China, and Engineering Research Center for Advanced Infrared Photoelectric Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.

Abstract: “We designed the phase-change memory (PCM) cell based on ultrathin GeTe film (∼10nm) and homemade nanoscale electrode filling craft to improve data retention ability and reduce programming energy, respectively. It was found that the temperature for ten years’ data retention of this ultrathin GeTe film is 160 ± 32.8 °C, which is much higher than that of conventional Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (GST, 83 ± 20.6 °C) film. Benefit to the nature of fragile-to-strong crossover behavior in GeTe supercooled liquids that was confined in a two-dimension structure, a fast SET speed of 6ns is also detected in this ultrathin GeTe PCM. Moreover, the RESET power consumption of this ultrathin GeTe PCM is measured as 1.8 ± 0.5 nJ, and it is much lower than that of GST PCM (16.5 ± 1.5 nJ), which is attributed to the nanoscale electrode of the devices. The above-mentioned improvements enable the application of ultrathin GeTe PCM in neuromorphic computing.“