Investigation of the effect of blade electrode width on performance of phase change memory

Abstract

The blade bottom electrode contact (BEC) can significantly reduce the programming current of the phase change memory (PCM) and achieve low power consumption compared with the typical T-shaped PCM cell. The method of controlling the electrode width by controlling the thickness of the deposited layer can make the size break through the limit of photolithography. This paper proves that the RESET programming current and power consumption of the PCM decrease linearly with the decrease of the blade BEC width, and builds a theoretical model to verify it by simulating the distribution internal temperature field. Based on the above research, the cell life of PCM with different electrode widths was tested, and it was proved that the endurance of PCM increased with the decrease of the width of the blade electrode, caused by the lower power consumption of the narrower electrode.