Materials World Network-- Ultrafast Switching of Phase Change Materials: Combined Nanosecond and Nanometer Exploration
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Flash memory, the present industry standard for solid state memory, is dependent on charge-sensing that is becoming increasingly difficult to scale. The non-volatile Phase Change Memory (PCM) is a promising alternative, as it is based on easier to detect resistance changes for locally switchable crystalline vs. amorphous states. Such PCM cells are generally configured as a chalcogenide film or rod sandwiched between two electrodes, where the amorphous/crystalline transition is achieved by quenching or slow cooling, respectively, after current induced heating beyond the glass transition temperature.There are multiple challenges for PCM that currently preclude them from becoming a mainstream solution for non-volatile memory, in the core of these lying the switching process itself. The dynamics of nucleation and crystallization on nanoscale are also an outstanding concern, as they will define the ultimate switching speeds and are implicated in challenges with bit retention, fidelity, and fatigue. The material science of this switching process is therefore of tremendous academic and industrial interest, including characterization of local electronic and thermal properties which define the ultimate resistance change and thermal diffusion length, respectively.To address these problems, this collaborative proposal between University of Connecticut, USA and Lancaster University, UK brings substantial and symbiotic expertise, specifically in novel quantitative measurements at the necessary simultaneous nanometer and spatial scales, including sub-surface and depth profile measurements for mapping the phase transition beneath an electrode as in practical memory cells. Such combined expertise, in critical for PCM materials development fields, presently do not exist in any single lab worldwide. The project involves industrial collaboration for both material and device development as well as instrumentation for materials phase change mapping in nanoscale devices. Primary emphasis on the local electronic and dynamic properties of PCM will be centered in the US, the local thermal and subsurface measurements will be rooted in the UK, with industrial collaborators based both in US (materials and devices) and UK (characterization). Interaction will be enhanced by annual faculty visits, month-long student exchanges, and round robin experiments. Project involves significant training and outreach component including project students visiting the foreign counterpart for an entire university term, leveraging the local expertise and capabilities for joint measurements and technology transfer while also benefitting from exposure to a different educational system.The proposal aims to develop a non-destructive in-situ methodology of real-time switching process in PCM materials. It is based on high speed nanoscale probing of electrical switching process, material sensitive ultrasonic force microscopy and nanoscale thermal characterization, where collaborating institutions have world leading expertise. That will allow to relate local material properties and heat transport with mechanical and chemical defects in PCM materials and devices, material transformation and switching phenomena, as well as to investigate approaches for improving switching fatigue. This research will lead to new PCM materials and improvement of key parameters of their processing and device engineering, with superior switching speed, data retention and switching fatigue and approaches for withstanding trends of decreasing dimensions and increasing bit density of modern memory devices.
Publications
Afouxenidis D
(2015)
ZnO-based thin film transistors employing aluminum titanate gate dielectrics deposited by spray pyrolysis at ambient air.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Antoniou G
(2022)
Solution-processed thin film transistors incorporating YSZ gate dielectrics processed at 400 °C
in APL Materials
Anyebe E
(2014)
Self-catalysed growth of InAs nanowires on bare Si substrates by droplet epitaxy Self-catalysed growth of InAs nanowires on bare Si substrates by droplet epitaxy
in physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters
Anyebe EA
(2015)
Realization of Vertically Aligned, Ultrahigh Aspect Ratio InAsSb Nanowires on Graphite.
in Nano letters
Bosse J
(2014)
Nanomechanical morphology of amorphous, transition, and crystalline domains in phase change memory thin films
in Applied Surface Science
Bosse J
(2014)
Nanosecond switching in GeSe phase change memory films by atomic force microscopy
in Applied Physics Letters
Bosse J
(2014)
Physical mechanisms of megahertz vibrations and nonlinear detection in ultrasonic force and related microscopies
in Journal of Applied Physics
Bosse J
(2014)
Nanothermal characterization of amorphous and crystalline phases in chalcogenide thin films with scanning thermal microscopy
in Journal of Applied Physics
Bosse J
(2013)
Multidimensional SPM applied for nanoscale conductance mapping
in Journal of Materials Research
Briggs
(2009)
Acoustic Microscopy: Second Edition
Dinelli F
(2017)
Subsurface imaging of two-dimensional materials at the nanoscale.
in Nanotechnology
Esro M
(2015)
Solution processed lanthanum aluminate gate dielectrics for use in metal oxide-based thin film transistors
in Applied Physics Letters
Esro M
(2017)
Structural and Electrical Characterization of SiO2 Gate Dielectrics Deposited from Solutions at Moderate Temperatures in Air.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Gehring P
(2017)
Field-Effect Control of Graphene-Fullerene Thermoelectric Nanodevices.
in Nano letters
Grishin I
(2013)
Three-dimensional nanomechanical mapping of amorphous and crystalline phase transitions in phase-change materials.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Kamarudin M
(2010)
GaSb quantum dot morphology for different growth temperatures and the dissolution effect of the GaAs capping layer
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Kay ND
(2014)
Electromechanical sensing of substrate charge hidden under atomic 2D crystals.
in Nano letters
Kolosov O
(2017)
Quantum effects: Heat flow in atomic bottlenecks.
in Nature nanotechnology
Kolosov OV
(2011)
Material sensitive scanning probe microscopy of subsurface semiconductor nanostructures via beam exit Ar ion polishing.
in Nanotechnology
Mazzocco R
(2015)
Surface and interfacial interactions of multilayer graphitic structures with local environment
in Thin Solid Films
Oleg Kolosov (Author)
(2011)
Method and apparatus for ion beam polishing
Pozo-Zamudio O
(2015)
Photoluminescence of two-dimensional GaTe and GaSe films
in 2D Materials
Pumarol ME
(2012)
Direct nanoscale imaging of ballistic and diffusive thermal transport in graphene nanostructures.
in Nano letters
Rivas M
(2015)
Nanoscale mapping of in situ actuating microelectromechanical systems with AFM
in Journal of Materials Research
Robinson B
(2014)
Nanomechanical mapping of graphene layers and interfaces in suspended graphene nanostructures grown via carbon diffusion
in Thin Solid Films
Robinson B
(2015)
Structural, optical and electrostatic properties of single and few-layers MoS 2 : effect of substrate
in 2D Materials
Robinson BJ
(2017)
Formation of Two-Dimensional Micelles on Graphene: Multi-Scale Theoretical and Experimental Study.
in ACS nano
Robson AJ
(2013)
High-accuracy analysis of nanoscale semiconductor layers using beam-exit ar-ion polishing and scanning probe microscopy.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Sercombe D
(2013)
Optical investigation of the natural electron doping in thin MoS2 films deposited on dielectric substrates.
in Scientific reports
Stone R
(2013)
Tungstate sharpening: a versatile method for extending the profile of ultra sharp tungsten probes.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Timofeeva M
(2016)
Scanning thermal microscopy with heat conductive nanowire probes.
in Ultramicroscopy
Tinker-Mill C
(2014)
Ultrasonic force microscopy for nanomechanical characterization of early and late-stage amyloid-ß peptide aggregation.
in Scientific reports
Tovee P
(2012)
Nanoscale spatial resolution probes for scanning thermal microscopy of solid state materials
in Journal of Applied Physics
Tovee PD
(2014)
Nanoscale resolution scanning thermal microscopy using carbon nanotube tipped thermal probes.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Trabelsi AB
(2014)
Charged nano-domes and bubbles in epitaxial graphene.
in Nanotechnology
Zhuang QD
(2014)
Graphitic platform for self-catalysed InAs nanowires growth by molecular beam epitaxy.
in Nanoscale research letters
| Description | It was found that a switching speed of a new generation of non-volatile memory based on phase-change materials (that may eventually replace both flash memory and RAM computer memory) can be significantly improved by the modification of thermal properties of such materials. It was also found that the density of the memory elements can be optimized by selection appropriate interfaces, leading to the larger memory chips. 3D mapping of materials and devices allowed to understand the synthesis conditions of multiple solid state applications. |
| Exploitation Route | A new methodology for studying these phase-change materials as well as general semiconductor devices may find a way for the research and engineering in these fields. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | A spin-out company LMA Ltd has been established, based on the now awarded US patent, impact in the optoelectronics UK industry has been demonstrated, with furher international impact for the semiconductor industry is being explored. EU patent has been also granted. Significant number of industrial samples have been studied using new BEXP method including semiconductor industry, chemical materials, biomaterials. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | European Commission (EC) |
| Amount | £38,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | FUNPROB |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 06/2011 |
| End | 06/2015 |
| Description | FP7 QUANTIHEAT |
| Amount | € 586,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 604668 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 12/2013 |
| End | 11/2017 |
| Description | Paul Instrument Fund |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 11/2019 |
| Description | UCONN-ULANC collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Connecticut |
| Department | Institute of Materials Science |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Multiple new research direction were explored with 3 publications in the main Physics and materials science journals resulting from it and two more in the preparation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided financial support for travel to the UCONN, access to equipment on the order of $400,000, with technical support on-site. |
| Impact | Publications:Nanothermal characterization of amorphous and crystalline phases in chalcogenide thin films with scanning thermal microscopy Bosse, J., Timofeeva, M., Tovee, P., Robinson, B., Huey, B. & Kolosov, O. 7/10/2014 In : Journal of Applied Physics. 116, 13, 8 p., 134904 Research output: Contribution to journal > Journal article Nanomechanical morphology of amorphous, transition, and crystalline domains in phase change memory thin films Bosse, J., Grishin, I., Huey, B. & Kolosov, O. 30/09/2014 In : Applied Surface Science. 314, p. 151-157 7 p. Research output: Contribution to journal > Journal article Nanoscale mapping of in situ actuating microelectromechanical systems with AFM Rivas, M., Vyas, V., Carter, A., Veronick, J., Khan, Y., Kolosov, O. V., Polcawich, R. G. & Huey, B. D. 14/02/2015 In : Journal of Materials Research. 30, 3, p. 429-441 13 p. Research output: Contribution to journal > Journal article |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Title | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ION BEAM POLISHING |
| Description | A method for forming a polished facet between an edge and a face of a sample, involves removing a first portion of the sample by directing an ion beam onto the edge adjacent the first portion along an ion beam axis to leave the polished facet. The ion beam axis lies on an ion beam plane oriented at a glancing incident angle, preferably from 1° to 30°, to a sample plane defined by and parallel to the first face. The ion beam is directed to flow from the edge towards the first face. Also disclosed is a sample preparation apparatus comprising a chamber adapted for evacuation with a sample holder adapted to hold a sample comprising a first face bounded by an edge, and an ion gun arranged to direct an ion beam along an ion beam axis towards the sample. The sample holder is configurable to position the sample relative to the ion beam such that a first portion of the sample is removable by the ion beam to leave a polished facet between the edge and the first face of said sample. The sample holder is configured to hold the sample whereby the ion beam axis lies on an ion beam plane oriented at an incident angle from 1° to 30° to a sample plane defined by and parallel to the first face of the sample. |
| IP Reference | WO2011101613 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2011 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | The invention allowed to establish a new business for theLancaster University spin-off Lancaster Materials Analysis and research collaboration with several industrial partners in UK, EU and USA. |
| Company Name | Lancaster Materials Analysis |
| Description | Services to the industry and implementation of IP based on Lancaster patent US9082587 |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | Demonstrated potential for replacing TEM and SEM methods by less expensive in the characterization of semiconductor and optoelectronic structures |
| Website | http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/articles/2014/novel-materials-analysis-technique-promises-to-reduce-... |