Investigation on ultrafast electrical switching dynamics of In-sb-Te phase change memory devices and their suitability for multi-bit data storage applications

Abstract

From ancient times to the present, there have been several techniques used by mankind to store the information such as cave paintings, papers, magnetic tapes, optical storage products (CDs, DVDs, and BDs) and recently electronic memory products. There is a radical shift in the way of storage of information over several decades. In today’s modern era, portable electronic products such as mobile phone, tablet, digital camera etc. are becoming an essential part of daily life. As a result, there is a vital need of non-volatile memory (NVM) having large data storage capacity with faster data transfer rates. Ideally, such requirements could be fulfilled by ‘universal memory’ device that combines superior properties of various memory products, including high speed and non-volatility [1, 2]. Silicon based NVMs, such as conventional Flash memory has extensively been used in various electronic devices. Nevertheless, owing to the limitation of physical scaling of Flash memories continued scaling becomes challenging [3]. Therefore, there is a growing interest to identify suitable memory technologies meeting the requirements of high performance NVM for future electronics.