Energy-Efficient Phase Change Memory Programming by Nanosecond Pulses

摘要

Phase change memory (PCM) is an important storage-class memory technology and a promising candidate for neuromorphic applications. PCM is based on the reversible resistance change in chalcogenide glasses, like Ge2Sbn2nTe5 (GST), which can be induced with Joule heating pulses. However, PCM often suffers from large programming energy during the reset (amorphization) process which requires heating the chalcogenide above its melting temperaturen$(T_{mathrm{m}}sim 600^{circ}mathrm{C})$n. Recently, significant reductions in reset energy were achieved by scaling down cell dimensions thanks to the non-filamentary nature of PCM [1].