Micron Technology Incorporated

Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Other

Ovonyx Inc.

Maria Santina Marangon

Tyler A Lowrey

Charles C Kuo

Ilya V Karpov

Yudong Kim

Greg Atwood

Fabio Pellizzer

Roberto Bez

Giorgio De Santi

Romina Zonca

Roberta Piva

Laura Aina

In various examples, a dual resistance heater for a phase change material region is fabricated by forming a resistive material. Prior to forming the phase change material region over the resistive material, at least an upper portion of the resistive material is exposed to an implantation or plasma that increases the resistance of an upper portion of the resistive material relative to the remainder, or bulk, of the resistive material. As a result, the portion of the resistive material proximate to the phase change material region forms a heater because of its high resistance value, but the bulk of the resistive material has a relatively lower resistance value and, thus, does not increase the voltage drop and current usage of the device. Other methods and devices are disclosed.

Dual resistance heater for phase change memory devices

In various examples, dual resistive-material regions for a phase change material region are fabricated by initially forming a resistive material. Prior to forming the phase change material region over the resistive material, at least an upper portion of the resistive material is exposed to an implantation or plasma that increases the resistance of an upper portion of the resistive material relative to the remainder, or bulk, of the resistive material. As a result, in certain embodiments, the portion of the resistive material proximate to the phase change material region may be used as a heater because of a relatively, high resistance value of the resistive material, but the bulk of the resistive material has a relatively lower resistance value and, thus, does not increase the voltage drop and current usage of the device. Other methods and devices are disclosed.

Dual resistive-material regions for phase change memory devices

A dual resistance heater for a phase change material region is formed by depositing a resistive material. The heater material is then exposed to an implantation or plasma which increases the resistance of the surface of the heater material relative to the remainder of the heater material. As a result, the portion of the heater material approximate to the phase change material region is a highly effective heater because of its high resistance, but the bulk of the heater material is not as resistive and, thus, does not increase the voltage drop and the current usage of the device.

Dual resistance heater for phase change devices and manufacturing method thereof

A process for manufacturing a phase change memory array includes the steps of: forming a plurality of phase change memory cells in an array region of a semiconductor wafer, the phase change memory cells arranged in rows and columns according to a row direction and to a column direction, respectively; forming a control circuit in a control region of the semiconductor wafer; forming a plurality of first bit line portions for mutually connecting phase change memory cells arranged on a same column; forming first level electrical interconnection structures; and forming second level electrical interconnection structures above the first level electrical interconnection structures. The first level electrical interconnection structures include second bit line portions laying on and in contact with the first bit line portions and projecting from the first bit line portions in the column direction for connecting the first bit line portions to the control circuit.

Process for manufacturing a phase change memory array in Cu-damascene technology and phase change memory array thereby manufactured

A vertical-current-flow resistive element includes a monolithic region having a first portion and a second portion arranged on top of one another and formed from a single material. The first portion has a first resistivity, and the second portion has a second resistivity, lower than the first resistivity. To this aim, a monolithic region with a uniform resistivity and a height greater than at least one of the other dimensions is first formed; then the resistivity of the first portion is increased by introducing, from the top, species that form a prevalently covalent bond with the conductive material of the monolithic region, so that the concentration of said species becomes higher in the first portion than in the second portion. Preferably, the conductive material is a binary or ternary alloy, chosen from among TiAl, TiSi, TiSi, Ta, WSi, and the increase in resistivity is obtained by nitridation.

Integrated resistor, phase-change memory element including this resistor, and process for the fabrication thereof

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Merate, Italy

Maria Santina Marangon