Phase Change Properties Of Ti-Sb-Te Thin Films Deposited By Thermal Atomic Layer Deposition

Phase change random access memory (PCM) appears to be the strongest candidate for next-generation high density nonvolatile memory. The fabrication of ultrahigh density PCM depends heavily on the thin film growth technique for the phase changing chalcogenide material. In this study, TiSb2Te4 (TST) thin films were deposited by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) method using TiCl4, SbCl3, (Et3Si)(2)Te as precursors. The threshold voltage for the cell based on thermal ALD-deposited TST is about 2.0 V, which is much lower than that (3.5 V) of the device based on PVD-deposited Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) with the identical cell architecture. Tests of TST-based PCM cells have demonstrated a fast switching rate of similar to 100 ns. Furthermore, because of the lower melting point and thermal conductivities of TST materials, TST-based PCM cells exhibit 19% reduction of pulse voltages for Reset operation compared with GST-based PCM cells,. These results show that thermal ALD is an attractive method for the preparation of phase change materials.