Structure and Kinetics in New Phase-Change and Ionic-Migration Memory Media
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
The current industry-standard technology for non-volatile memory is Flash, involving electrons trapped on the floating gate of a MOSFET. In the near future, no further size-reduction scaling of this will be possible due to technological limitations. Two new non-volatile memory technogies are being developed to replace Flash memory; i) phase-change (PC) media, in which there is a current-induced transformation between amorphous and crystalline states of a material, each having a different electrical resistance; ii) ion-migration or programmable metallization cell (PMC) technology, in which there is a voltage-induced growth of a conducting metallic filament in a solid electrolyte between two electrodes. In both cases, the large resistance changes between 'on' and 'off' states allow binary (and potentially even more, multilevel) data to be stored in a memory cell. The aim of this project is to gain a deep theoretical and experimental understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved in data recording in such memory media, and thereby to design, and synthesize, new memory media with much improved performance.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Stephen Elliott (Principal Investigator) | |
A Greer (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Kohoutek T
(2011)
Inverse opal photonic crystal of chalcogenide glass by solution processing.
in Journal of colloid and interface science
Krbal M
(2011)
Intrinsic complexity of the melt-quenched amorphous Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 memory alloy
in Physical Review B
Lee T
(2011)
Structural role of vacancies in the phase transition of Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 memory materials
in Physical Review B
Lee TH
(2011)
Ab Initio computer simulation of the early stages of crystallization: application to Ge(2)Sb(2)Te(5) phase-change materials.
in Physical review letters
Orava J
(2011)
Soft imprint lithography of a bulk chalcogenide glass
in Optical Materials Express
Orava J
(2012)
Characterization of supercooled liquid Ge2Sb2Te5 and its crystallization by ultrafast-heating calorimetry.
in Nature materials
Description | Crystallization behaviour of GST phase-change memory material has been studied by experimental calorimetry and simulations |
Exploitation Route | We will be making new grant applications to EPSRC to further this work |
Sectors | Electronics |
Description | The results have informed the academic community |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Electronics |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | EPSRC |
Amount | £307,924 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/I018050/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2009 |
End | 10/2012 |