Multilevel storage in lateral phase-change memory by promotion of nanocrystallization

Abstract

We investigated multilevel storage in lateral phase-change memory (PCM) by controlling the promotion of nanocrystallization. Joule-heating-induced nanocrystallization was gradually promoted by applying increasingly high currents, which enabled formation of intermediate resistance levels in the lateral PCM with an additional top heater. More than 16 distinct resistance levels were demonstrated in our proposed structure, showing an eightfold improvement compared with conventional binary PCM. The programmed resistance levels exhibited good thermal stability. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.