Temperature dependence of SET switching characteristics in phase-change memory cells.

The temperature dependence of crystallization kinetics of phase-change materials raises a series of reliability issues, while phase-change memory cells work at high temperature or thermal-disturbance condition. These issues hinder the development of ultrahigh-density storage devices. We investigate the evolution of SET switching characteristics of phase-change memory cells at high operating temperature. We show that the high temperature strongly impacts the SET state resistance. As a result, SET failure has been observed with elevated ambient temperature. Our SPICE simulations indicate that transient amorphization behavior during a complete SET pulse period is considered as the potential mechanism of SET failure. By modifying the SET pulse intensity and width linearly, we successfully reduce the SET failure in the experiments. The results illustrate that the demonstrated linear properties may optimize SET pulse performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]