Programming power reduction in confined phase change memory cells with titanium dioxide clad layer

A confined structure phase change memory (PCM) cell has been fabricated based on the focused-ion beam technique. Furthermore, the titanium dioxide clad layer was proposed for promoting the temperature rise in the Ge0.61Sb2Te layer that causes the reduction in the reset voltage and current compared to the phase change memory cell without clad layer. Theoretical thermal simulation and calculation for the reset process are conducted to analyze the thermal effect of the titanium dioxide heating layer. The improved performance of the PCM cell with dioxide clad layer can be attributed to the fact that the buffer layer not only acted as heating layer but also efficiently reduced the cell dissipated power.