Performance improvement in a Ti–Sb–Te phase change material by GaSb doping

Abstract

Herein, the GaSb-doped Ti_0.09Sb_0.38Te_0.53(TST) material is investigated and considered to be a potential candidate for phase change random access memory (PCM) application due to its overall good performance. With a high crystallization temperature of 220 °C, (GaSb)_0.11(Ti_0.09Sb_0.38T_0.53)_0.89 ((GaSb)_0.11TST) exhibits a data retention of 10 y at 136.8 °C, which is much better than that of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ as well as TST. For the (GaSb)_0.11TST-based cell, an electric pulse as short as 5 ns can fulfill the SET operation, thus demonstrating an extremely rapid crystallization speed. Furthermore, the cell shows a significantly lower power consumption for SET/RESET reversible switching than that of the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅-based cell. The programming cycles can reach 1 × 10⁴ cycles with stability resistance of about a two orders of magnitude on/off ratio.