Up to 60% energy saving for GST-based confined phase change memory using paired pulses RESET operation scheme

As one of the most promising candidates for next-generation nonvolatile memory, phase change memory is still facing the problem of high power consumption required to reset the device. The melt-quench process during amorphization leads to thermal crosstalk between devices as well. In this work, a paired pulses (P.P.) RESET operation scheme has been demonstrated to reduce the maximum temperature during the amorphization process, which in turn significantly reduces the power consumption. Experiments show that both the minimum RESET programming voltage and power consumption have decreased by up to 0.4 V and 60%, respectively. This proposed programming strategy is promising to optimize the device endurance and stability without sacrificing operating speed.