Sandisk 3d LLC

Intermolecular, Inc.

Xiying Chen

Tanmay Kumar

Er-Xuan Ping

Huiwen Xu

Chuanbin Pan

Deepak Chandra Sekar

April Dawn Schricker

Klaus Florian Schuegraf

Mark Harold Clark

Abhijit Bandyopadhyay

Dat Nguyen

Roy E Scheuerlein

Tony P Chiang

Raghuveer S Makala

Peter Rabkin

S Brad Herner

Prashant B Phatak

George Samachisa

Yung-Tin Chen

Bing K Yen

Michael A Miller

Kun Hou

Li Xiao

Brian Le

Depak C Sekar

Optimized electrodes for ReRAM memory cells and methods for forming the same are discloses. One aspect comprises forming a first electrode, forming a state change element in contact with the first electrode, treating the state change element, and forming a second electrode. Treating the state change element increases the barrier height at the interface between the second electrode and the state change element. Another aspect comprises forming a first electrode in a manner to deliberately establish a certain degree of amorphization in the first electrode, forming a state change element in contact with the first electrode. The degree of amorphization of the first electrode is either at least as great as the degree of amorphization of the state change element or no more than 5 percent less than the degree of amorphization of the state change element.

Optimized electrodes for Re-RAM

A non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of pillars, where each of the plurality of pillars contains a non-volatile memory cell containing a steering element and a storage element and at least one of a top corner or a bottom corner of each of the plurality of pillars is rounded. A method of making non-volatile memory device includes forming a stack of device layers, and patterning the stack to form a plurality of pillars, where each of the plurality of pillars contains a non-volatile memory cell that contains a steering element and a storage element, and where at least one of top corner or bottom corner of each of the plurality of pillars is rounded.

Electrode diffusions in two-terminal non-volatile memory devices

In a first aspect, a method of forming a memory cell is provided that includes (1) forming a metal-insulator-metal ('MIM') stack above a substrate, the MIM stack including a carbon-based switching material having a resistivity of at least 1&#xd7;10ohm-cm; and (2) forming a steering element coupled to the MIM stack. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Modulation of resistivity in carbon-based read-writeable materials

A nonvolatile memory cell including a storage element in series with a diode steering element. At least one interface of the diode steering element is passivated.

In-situ passivation methods to improve performance of polysilicon diode

One embodiment of the invention provides a semiconductor diode device including a first conductivity type region, a second conductivity type region, where the second conductivity type is different from the first conductivity type, an intrinsic region located between the first conductivity type region and the second conductivity type region; a first halo region of the first conductivity type located between the second conductivity type region and the intrinsic region, and optionally a second halo region of the second conductivity type located between the first conductivity type region and the intrinsic region.

Reverse leakage reduction and vertical height shrinking of diode with halo doping

A method and system for forming reversible resistivity-switching elements is described herein. Forming refers to reducing the resistance of the reversible resistivity-switching element, and is generally understood to refer to reducing the resistance for the first time. Prior to forming the reversible resistivity-switching element it may be in a high-resistance state. A first voltage is applied to 'partially form' the reversible resistivity-switching element. The first voltage has a first polarity. Partially forming the reversible resistivity-switching element lowers the resistance of the reversible resistivity-switching element. A second voltage that has the opposite polarity as the first is then applied to the reversible resistivity-switching element. Application of the second voltage may further lower the resistance of the reversible resistivity-switching element. Therefore, the second voltage could be considered as completing the forming of the reversible resistivity-switching element.

Soft forming reversible resistivity-switching element for bipolar switching

This disclosure provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device layer and associated memory cell structures. By performing a surface treatment process (such as ion bombardment) of a semiconductor device layer to create defects having a deliberate depth profile, one may create multistable memory cells having more consistent electrical parameters. For example, in a resistive-switching memory cell, one may obtain a tighter distribution of set and reset voltages and lower forming voltage, leading to improved device yield and reliability. In at least one embodiment, the depth profile is selected to modulate the type of defects and their influence on electrical properties of a bombarded metal oxide layer and to enhance uniform defect distribution.

Surface treatment to improve resistive-switching characteristics

A nonvolatile memory cell includes a steering element located in series with a storage element, where the storage element comprises a carbon material. A method of programming the cell includes applying a reset pulse to change a resistivity state of the carbon material from a first state to a second state which is higher than the first state, and applying a set pulse to change a resistivity state of the carbon material from the second state to a third state which is lower than the second state. A fall time of the reset pulse is shorter than a fall time of the set pulse.

Method of programming a nonvolatile memory device containing a carbon storage material

A metal-insulator diode is disclosed. In one aspect, the metal-insulator diode comprises first and second electrode and first and second insulators arraigned as follows. An insulating region has a trench formed therein. The trench has a bottom and side walls. The first electrode, which comprises a first metal, is on the side walls and over the bottom of the trench. A first insulator has a first interface with the first electrode. At least a portion of the first insulator is within the trench. A second insulator has a second interface with the first insulator. At least a portion of the second insulator is within the trench. The second electrode, which comprises a second metal, is in contact with the second insulator. The second electrode at least partially fills the trench.

MIIM diodes having stacked structure

Method of making a two-terminal non-volatile memory pillar device with rounded corner

An integrated circuit including vertically oriented diode structures between conductors and methods of fabricating the same are provided. The diode is a metal-insulator diode having a first metal layer, a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer and a second metal layer. At least one asymmetric interface state is provided at the intersection of at least two of the layers to increase the ratio of the diode's on-current to its reverse bias leakage current. In various examples, the asymmetric interface state is formed by a positive or negative sheet charge that alters the barrier height and/or electric field at one or more portions of the diode. Two-terminal devices such as passive element memory cells can utilize the diode as a steering element in series with a state change element. The devices can be formed using pillar structures at the intersections of upper and lower conductors.

Dual insulating layer diode with asymmetric interface state and method of fabrication

A method of programming a nonvolatile memory cell includes applying at least one initialization pulse having a duration of at least 1 ms, followed by applying plural programming pulses having a duration of less than 1 ms. The cell includes a steering element located in series with a storage element, and the storage element includes a carbon material.

Multilevel nonvolatile memory device containing a carbon storage material and methods of making and using same

A nonvolatile memory cell includes a steering element located in series with a storage element. The storage element includes a carbon material and the memory cell includes a rewritable cell having multiple memory levels.

A method of making a non-volatile memory device includes forming a first electrode, forming a steering element, forming at least one feature, forming a carbon resistivity switching material on at least one sidewall of the at least one feature such that the carbon resistivity switching material electrically contacts the steering element, and forming a second electrode.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Xiying Chen