Improved thermal stability of Sb materials by SiO2 doping for ultra-fast phase change memory application

Abstract SiO 2 -doped Sb material is proved to be a promising candidate for phase change memory (PCM) use because of its high crystallization temperature (∼239 °C), large crystallization activation energy (4.05 eV), and good data retention ability (162 °C for 10 years). The band gap is broadened and the grain size is refined by SiO 2 doping. The reversible resistance transition can be achieved by an electric pulse as short as 5 ns for the PCM cell based on SiO 2 -doped Sb material. A lower operation power consumption (the energy for RESET operation 1.1 × 10 −11  J) is obtained. In addition, SiO 2 -doped Sb material shows a good endurance of 2.5 × 10 5 cycles.