Materials World Network-- Ultrafast Switching of Phase Change Materials: Combined Nanosecond and Nanometer Exploration

材料世界网——相变材料的超快切换：纳秒与纳米的结合探索

• 批准号: EP/G06556X/1
• 负责人: Oleg Kolosov
• 金额: $ 25.18万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FG06556X%2F1
• 关键词: Materials; World; Network; Ultrafast; Switching

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.

闪存是固态存储器的当前工业标准，其依赖于电荷感测，而电荷感测正变得越来越难以缩放。非易失性相变存储器（PCM）是一种有前途的替代方案，因为它基于更容易检测局部可切换的晶态与非晶态的电阻变化。这种PCM单元通常被配置为夹在两个电极之间的硫属化物膜或棒，其中在电流感应加热超过玻璃化转变温度之后，分别通过淬火或缓慢冷却来实现非晶/结晶转变。纳米尺度上的成核和结晶动力学也是一个突出的问题，因为它们将定义最终的开关速度，并涉及比特保持、保真度和疲劳的挑战。因此，这种开关过程的材料科学具有巨大的学术和工业兴趣，包括分别定义最终电阻变化和热扩散长度的局部电子和热特性的表征。为了解决这些问题，美国康涅狄格大学和英国兰开斯特大学之间的这一合作提案带来了大量的共生专业知识，特别是在必要的同时纳米和空间尺度的新的定量测量中，包括用于如在实际存储器单元中映射电极下方的相变的次表面和深度轮廓测量。这种结合的专业知识，在关键的PCM材料开发领域，目前不存在于任何一个单一的实验室世界各地。该项目涉及材料和设备开发的工业合作，以及纳米级设备中材料相变映射的仪器。PCM的局部电子和动态特性的主要重点将集中在美国，局部热和地下测量将植根于英国，与美国（材料和设备）和英国（表征）的工业合作者。互动将通过年度教师访问，为期一个月的学生交流和循环实验来加强。该项目包括重要的培训和推广部分，包括项目学生访问外国同行整个大学学期，利用当地的专业知识和能力进行联合测量和技术转让，同时也受益于不同的教育体系。该提案旨在开发PCM材料实时切换过程的非破坏性原位方法。它基于电气开关过程的高速纳米级探测、材料敏感超声力显微镜和纳米级热表征，合作机构拥有世界领先的专业知识。这将允许与PCM材料和器件中的机械和化学缺陷，材料转变和开关现象，以及调查改善开关疲劳的方法的局部材料特性和热传输。这项研究将导致新的PCM材料及其加工和器件工程的关键参数的改进，具有上级的开关速度，数据保持和开关疲劳以及承受现代存储器件尺寸减小和位密度增加趋势的方法。

项目成果

Solution-processed thin film transistors incorporating YSZ gate dielectrics processed at 400 °C

采用溶液处理薄膜晶体管，采用 400°C 温度下处理的 YSZ 栅极电介质

• DOI: 10.1063/5.0079195
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: APL Materials
• 影响因子: 6.1
• 作者: Antoniou G

Multidimensional SPM applied for nanoscale conductance mapping

• DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2013.365
• 发表时间: 2013-12
• 期刊: Journal of Materials Research
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: J. Bosse;Ilja Grishin;O. Kolosov;B. Huey

Nanosecond switching in GeSe phase change memory films by atomic force microscopy

• DOI: 10.1063/1.4863495
• 发表时间: 2014-02
• 期刊: Applied Physics Letters
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: J. Bosse;I. Grishin;Y. Choi;B. Cheong;Suyoun Lee;O. Kolosov;B. Huey

Nanomechanical morphology of amorphous, transition, and crystalline domains in phase change memory thin films

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2014.06.135
• 发表时间: 2014-06
• 期刊: Applied Surface Science
• 影响因子: 6.7
• 作者: J. Bosse;I. Grishin;B. Huey;O. Kolosov

Physical mechanisms of megahertz vibrations and nonlinear detection in ultrasonic force and related microscopies

• DOI: 10.1063/1.4871077
• 发表时间: 2014-04-14
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Bosse, J. L.;Tovee, P. D.;Kolosov, O. V.
• 通讯作者: Kolosov, O. V.