International Business Machines Corporation

Macronix International Co., Ltd.

Qimonda Ag

Infineon Technologies North America Corp.

Qimonda North America Corporation

Matthew Joseph Breitwisch

Chung H Lam

Alejandro Gabriel Schrott

Eric Andrew Joseph

Hsiang-Lan Lung

Bipin Rajendran

Roger W Cheek

Yu Zhu

Simone Raoux

Chieh-Fang Chen

Edward J Nowak

Thomas Happ

Yen-Hao Shih

Brent A Anderson

Randy William Mann

Jan Boris Philipp

Huai-Yu Cheng

Dharmendra S Modha

Luis Alfonso Lastras-Montano

Ming-Hsiu Lee

Michele M Franceschini

Jeffrey Scott Brown

Terence B Hook

Chao-I Wu

Shih-Hung Chen

Jeffrey Bowman Johnson

Thomas Mittelholzer

Chandrasekharan Kothandaraman

John Peter Karidis

James Albert Slinkman

Min Yang

Christopher Stephen Putnam

Michael Joseph Zierak

Michael F Lofaro

Gerhard Ingmar Meijer

Xiaoyan Shao

Ibrahim M Elfadel

BethAnn Rainey

Mayank Sharma

Stefanie Ruth Chiras

Beth Ann Rainey

Chieh Fang Chen

Brandon Yee

Mohammad I Younus

Erh-Kun Lai

Robert K Montoye

Bomy A Chen

Stephen Mark Rossnagel

Sarunya Bangsaruntip

Kuan-Neng Chen

Geoffrey W Burr

Yi-Chou Chen

Hsiang Lan Lung

Prabhakar Nandavar Kudva

Mary Beth Rothwell

Gary S Ditlow

Dale Warner Martin

Philip L Flaitz

Matthew D Moon

Ming Hsiu Lee

Daniel Krebs

Steven W Mittl

Sheng-Chih Lai

Shih Hung Chen

Yi Chou Chen

Frieder Heinrich Baumann

Jeffrey H Oppold

Chung-Hon Lam

Shihhung Chen

Hsiang-Lang Lung

Jian W Zhu

A memory cell and a method of making the same, that includes insulating material deposited on a substrate, a bottom electrode formed within the insulating material, a plurality of insulating layers deposited above the bottom electrode and at least one of which acts as an intermediate insulating layer. A via is defined in the insulating layers above the intermediate insulating layer. A channel is created for etch with a sacrificial spacer. A pore is defined in the intermediate insulating layer. All insulating layers above the intermediate insulating layer are removed, and the entirety of the remaining pore is filled with phase change material. An upper electrode is formed above the phase change material.

Uniform critical dimension size pore for PCRAM application

A method of fabricating a lower bottom electrode for a memory element and a semiconductor structure having the same includes forming a dielectric layer over a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of conductive contacts formed therein to be connected to access circuitry, forming a dielectric cap layer over exposed portions of the dielectric layer and the conductive contacts, depositing a planarizing material over the dielectric cap layer, etching a via to an upper surface of each conductive contact, removing the planarizing material, depositing electrode material over the dielectric cap layer and within the vias, the electrode material contacting an upper surface of each conductive contact, and planarizing the electrode material to form a lower bottom electrode over each conductive contact.

Self-aligned lower bottom electrode

A memory device includes a plurality of side-wall electrodes formed on a first side-wall of a trench within an insulating layer over a first plurality of contacts in an array of contacts in a substrate. The plurality of side-wall electrodes contact respective top surfaces of the first plurality of contacts. The side-wall electrodes respectively comprise a layer of tantalum nitride, having a composition TaN, where y is greater than x, and a layer of electrode material having a lower electrical resistivity and a lower thermal resistivity than the layer of tantalum nitride. Top surfaces of the plurality of side-wall electrodes contact memory material. A second plurality of side-wall electrodes may be formed on a second side-wall of the trench over a second plurality of contacts in the array of contacts.

Thermally confined electrode for programmable resistance memory

A phase change material comprises GeSbTe, wherein a Ge atomic concentration x is within a range from 30% to 65%, a Sb atomic concentration y is within a range from 13% to 27% and a Te atomic concentration z is within a range from 20% to 45%. A Ge-rich family of such materials is also described. A memory device, suitable for integrated circuits, comprising such materials is described.

Ge-Rich GST-212 phase change memory materials

Systems, methods, and devices for iteratively writing contents to memory locations are provided. A statistical model is used to determine a sequence of pulses to write desired contents to a memory location. The contents can be expressed as a resistance value in a range to store one or more bits in a memory cell. For phase change memory, an adaptive reset pulse and one or more annealing pulses are selected based on a desired resistance range. Reading the resistance value of the memory cell can provide feedback to determine adjustments in an overall pulse application strategy. The statistical model and a look up table can be used to select and modify pulses. Adaptively updating the statistical model and look up table may reduce the number of looping iterations to shift the resistance value of the memory cell into the desired resistance range.

Memory programming for a phase change memory cell

An array of phase change memory cells is manufactured by forming a separation layer over an array of contacts, forming a patterning layer on the separation layer and forming an array of mask openings in the patterning layer using lithographic process. Etch masks are formed within the mask openings by a process that compensates for variation in the size of the mask openings that result from the lithographic process. The etch masks are used to etch through the separation layer to define an array of electrode openings exposing the underlying contacts. Electrode material is deposited within the electrode openings; and memory elements are formed over the bottom electrodes. Finally, bit lines are formed over the memory elements to complete the memory cells. In the resulting memory array, the critical dimension of the top surface of bottom electrode varies less than the width of the memory elements in the mask openings.

Phase change memory cell array with self-converged bottom electrode and method for manufacturing

A fin-type programmable memory cell includes a bottom electrode electrically coupled to an access device, a top electrode, and an L-shaped memory material element electrically coupled to the bottom and top electrodes. A memory array includes an array of such memory cells, electrically coupled to an array of access devices. Method for making a memory cell, includes: forming a dielectric support layer over a bottom electrode, the dielectric support layer having an upper surface; forming a cavity through the dielectric support layer, exposing a surface of the bottom electrode and defining a dielectric support structure having a sidewall; forming a film of memory material over the dielectric support structure and in the cavity; depositing a dielectric spacer layer over the memory material film; forming a dielectric sidewall spacer from the dielectric spacer layer and a memory material structure having a generally horizontal portion underlying the dielectric sidewall spacer and a generally vertical portion between the dielectric sidewall spacer and the sidewall of the dielectric support structure; forming a dielectric fill; planarizing the dielectric fill to expose upper ends of the vertical portion of the memory material structure; depositing a top electrode material over the planarized dielectric fill; and forming a top electrode from the top electrode material and a memory material element from the memory material structure.

Self aligned fin-type programmable memory cell

An example embodiment disclosed is a phase change memory cell in a semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor wafer includes a first metalization layer (Metal 1). The phase change memory cell includes an insulating substrate defining a non-sublithographic via. The non-sublithographic via is located on the first metalization layer and includes a bottom and a sidewall. Intermediate insulating material is positioned below the insulating substrate. The intermediate insulating material defines a sublithographic aperture passing through the bottom of the non-sublithographic via. A bottom electrode is positioned within the sublithographic aperture, and is composed of conductive non-phase change material. The non-sublithographic via includes phase change material positioned within. The phase change material is electrically coupled to the bottom electrode. A liner is positioned along the sidewall of the non-sublithographic via. The liner is electrically coupled to the phase change material and is composed of the conductive non-phase change material.

Small footprint phase change memory cell

A layer of phase change material with silicon or another semiconductor, or a silicon-based or other semiconductor-based additive, is formed using a composite sputter target including the silicon or other semiconductor, and the phase change material. The concentration of silicon or other semiconductor is more than five times greater than the specified concentration of silicon or other semiconductor in the layer being formed. For silicon-based additive in GST-type phase change materials, sputter target may comprise more than 40 at % silicon. Silicon-based or other semiconductor-based additives can be formed using the composite sputter target with a flow of reactive gases, such as oxygen or nitrogen, in the sputter chamber during the deposition.

Composite target sputtering for forming doped phase change materials

An example embodiment disclosed is a method for fabricating a phase change memory cell. The method includes forming a non-sublithographic via within an insulating substrate. The insulating substrate is embedded on the same layer as a first metalization layer (Metal 1) of a semiconductor wafer, and includes a bottom and a sidewall. A sublithographic aperture is formed through the bottom of the non-sublithographic via and extends to a buried conductive material. The sublithographic aperture is filled with a conductive non-phase change material. Furthermore, phase change material is deposited within the non-sublithographic via.

A prompt-shift device having reduced programming time in the sub-millisecond range is provided. The prompt-shift device includes an altered extension region located within said semiconductor substrate and on at least one side of the patterned gate region, and an altered halo region located within the semiconductor substrate and on at least one side of the patterned gate region. The altered extension region has an extension ion dopant concentration of less than about 1E20 atoms/cm, and the altered extension region has a halo ion dopant concentration of greater than about 5E18 atoms/cm. The altered halo region is in direct contact with the altered extension region.

Method to tailor location of peak electric field directly underneath an extension spacer for enhanced programmability of a prompt-shift device

A method of manufacturing an electrode is provided that includes providing a pillar of a first phase change material atop a conductive structure of a dielectric layer; or the inverted structure; forming an insulating material atop dielectric layer and adjacent the pillar, wherein an upper surface of the first insulating material is coplanar with an upper surface of the pillar; recessing the upper surface of the pillar below the upper surface of the insulating material to provide a recessed cavity; and forming a second phase change material atop the recessed cavity and the upper surface of the insulating material, wherein the second phase change material has a greater phase resistivity than the first phase change material.

Pore phase change material cell fabricated from recessed pillar

An example embodiment is a phase change memory cell that includes a bottom contact and an electrically insulating layer disposed over the bottom contact. The electrically insulating layer defines an elongated via. Furthermore, a bottom electrode is disposed at least partially in the via. The bottom electrode includes a sleeve of a first electrically conductive material surrounding a rod of a second electrically conductive material. The first electrically conductive material and the second electrically conductive material have different specific electrical resistances. The memory cell also includes a phase change layer electrically coupled to the first electrode.

Phase change memory electrode with sheath for reduced programming current

A method for fabricating a phase change memory device including a plurality of in via phase change memory cells includes forming pillar heaters formed of a conductive material along a contact surface of a substrate corresponding to each of an array of conductive contacts to be connected to access circuitry, forming a dielectric layer along exposed areas of the substrate surrounding the pillar heaters, forming an interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer above the dielectric layer, etching a via to the dielectric layer, each via corresponding to each of pillar heater such that an upper surface of each pillar heater is exposed within each via, recessing each pillar heater, depositing phase change material in each via on each recessed pillar heater, recessing the phase change material within each via, and forming a top electrode within the via on the phase change material.

In via formed phase change memory cell with recessed pillar heater

Growing community of inventors

Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

Matthew Joseph Breitwisch