Integration of Phase Change Devices with Silicon Electronics for Increased Functionality and Performance

电子市场持续增长，因为电子电路的功能增加以降低成本，并且市场随着移动的应用扩展到发展中国家。因此，对整个计算机和通信基础设施的需求也在增加。电子产品成为全球经济的主要驱动力，并通过减少设备尺寸和整合新材料和技术提高生活质量。器件技术的最新进展使得能够将大量高速数据存储与逻辑电路集成以构建片上计算机。如果存储器访问电路可以按比例缩小，则单片计算机可以在速度、功耗、成本和尺寸上显著优于传统计算机。能够实现大数据存储与逻辑电路集成的存储器技术之一是相变存储器，其将信息存储在玻璃材料的高电阻非晶和导电结晶状态中作为逻辑“1”和“0”。相变材料还可以用于制造一系列多触点器件，以补充传统的硅电子器件，从而减少逻辑电路所需的面积。在这项研究中所研究的多接触相变结构利用热相互作用，除了电子相互作用，以实现相同或改进的功能，在更小的面积，降低功率和成本。研究生和本科生将接受设备制造，表征，模拟和建模方面的培训。参与该项目的学生与行业领导者互动，以推进相变存储器领域，并将帮助将这种多触点相变器件技术过渡到大规模生产。少数民族学生将通过UConn Mentor Connection和Northeast Alliance项目进行指导。该项目侧重于电热相互作用和相变材料行为的基础研究，使多触点逻辑器件成为可能，并设计，制造和评估这些多触点器件作为多路复用器，路由器，计数器，状态机和其他逻辑单元。 这些器件提供与DRAM（动态随机存取存储器）和非易失性配置相当的速度，功率水平足够低，关键特征尺寸为50 nm。用于实现亚50 nm关键特征的图案转移技术现在在硅CMOS中普遍可用，并且一些大规模制造商已经宣布了高密度相变存储器产品。因此，与相变存储器与CMOS的集成相关的挑战实际上得到了解决，并且利用这种基础设施的新器件和电路概念可以在相对短的时间内产生重大影响。这些多触点相变器件可以沿着与常规相变存储器阵列一起在硅CMOS顶部制造，以在CMOS层中以显著减少的晶体管数量实现逻辑功能。

The electronics market is continuing to grow, as functionality of electronic circuits' increases for reduced cost, and the market expands into the developing world with mobile applications. The demand for overall computer and communication infrastructure is also increasing as a result. Electronics became a major driver of the global economy and increased quality of life with reduced device dimensions and integration of new materials and techniques. The recent advances in device technologies is enabling integration of large amount of high-speed data storage with logic circuits to construct computers on chip. If the memory access circuitry can be scaled down, the single-chip computer can significantly outperform the conventional computers in speed, power consumption, cost and size. One of the memory technologies that can enable integration of large data storage with logic circuits is phase change memory, which stores information in the highly resistive amorphous and conductive crystalline states of glassy materials as logic '1's and '0's. Phase change materials can also be used to make a family of multi-contact devices that complement conventional silicon electronics to reduce the area required for the logic circuits. The multi-contact phase change structures that are investigated in this study utilize thermal interactions in addition to electronic interactions to achieve the same or improved functionality at smaller area, reduced power and cost. The graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in device fabrication, characterization, simulations and modeling. The students involved with this project interact with industrial leaders to advance the field of phase change memory and will help transition this multi-contact phase change device technology to mass production. Minority students will be mentored through UConn Mentor Connection and Northeast Alliance program.This project focuses on fundamental studies on electro-thermal interactions and behavior of phase change materials that enable multi-contact logic devices, and design, fabrication and evaluation of these multi-contact devices as multiplexers, routers, counters, state machines and other logic units. These devices offer speeds comparable to DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and non-volatile configurations at sufficiently low power levels for critical feature sizes 50 nm. Pattern transfer technologies to achieve sub-50 nm critical features are now commonly available in silicon CMOS and some of the large-scale manufacturers have announced high density phase change memory products. Hence, the challenges related to integration of phase change memory with CMOS are practically resolved, and new device and circuit concepts that utilize this infrastructure can lead to significant impacts in a relatively short time. These multi-contact phase change devices can be manufactured along with conventional phase change memory arrays atop silicon CMOS to realize logic functions at a significantly reduced transistor count in the CMOS layer.