Modeling of Phase-Change Memory: Nucleation, Growth, and Amorphization Dynamics During Set and Reset: Part II-Discrete Grains

We extend our finite-element model of nucleation, growth, and amorphization in phase-change memory devices to model discrete nucleation and grain boundaries, including the evolution of grains within fully crystalline material during long-term anneals. Electrothermal simulations of set and reset oper...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on electron devices 2017-11, Vol.64 (11), p.4472-4478
Main Authors: Woods, Zachary, Scoggin, Jake, Cywar, Adam, Adnane, L'Hacene, Gokirmak, Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amorphization
Annealing
Computational modeling
Crystallization
finite-element modeling
Grain boundaries
Grain size
nucleation and growth
Phase change materials
phase-change memory (PCM)
set and reset
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Summary:We extend our finite-element model of nucleation, growth, and amorphization in phase-change memory devices to model discrete nucleation and grain boundaries, including the evolution of grains within fully crystalline material during long-term anneals. Electrothermal simulations of set and reset operations include a heat of crystallization model and an Arrhenius expression modeling thermionic emission at grain boundaries. Our simulations capture cycle-to-cycle variations due to stochastic nucleation and the interplay of crystallization, the formation of percolation paths, and thermal runaway.
ISSN:0018-9383
1557-9646
DOI:10.1109/TED.2017.2745500