The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 04, 2002
Heon Lee, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Dennis M. Lazaroff, Corvallis, OR (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A low heat loss and small contact area electrode structure for a phase change media memory device is described. The memory device includes a composite electrode that includes a dielectric mandrel that is connected with a substrate and having a tapered shape that terminates at a vertex. An electrically conductive material conformally covers the dielectric mandrel and terminates at a tip. A first dielectric layer covers all of the composite electrode except an exposed portion of the composite electrode that is adjacent to the tip. A phase change media is in contact with the exposed portion. The exposed portion is only a small percentage of an overall surface area of the composite electrode so that a contact footprint between the exposed portion and the phase change media is small relative to a surface area of the phase change media and Joule heat transfer from the phase change media into the composite electrode is reduced.