High thermal stability chalcogenide phase-change materials for embedded memory applications

Chalcogenide phase-change materials are capable of switching rapidly between a disordered amorphous phase and an ordered crystalline phase, associating with the pronounced differences in electrical and optical properties. The resistance contrast is widely used for data storage in phase-change memories (PCMs). As the most promising emerging non-volatile memory, PCMs have been intensively explored for embedded data storage applications. The key challenge of embedded PCMs (ePCMs) is to realize reliable electrical switching performance in an environment with high thermal budget, in which the thermal stability of chalcogenide phase-change materials is crucial to retain the encoded information. We present a review of the material engineering of chalcogenide phase-change materials by doping to address the high thermal stability challenge. The mechanism of performance optimization and industrial applications of the chalcogenide materials are also included, which are important for the development of ePCMs with high thermal stability and excellent performance.