Phase change behavior of a nitride material and its application in PCRAM device

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20474
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0401:Materials engineering, chemical engineering, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: SHUANG YI 東北大学, 材料科学高等研究所, 助教 (10962144)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 相変化材料 / 相変化メモリ / 窒化物 / 不揮発性メモリ / アモルファス相 / 結晶相

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the case of the conventional Ge-Sb-Te (GST) amorphous/crystalline phase transition, the low thermal stability of the amorphous phase requires a significant amount of energy to melt the material. However, in this study, CrN proposed can achieve ultra-low energy operation without going through the amorphous phase, and the realization of PCRAM with greatly reduced energy consumption is highly anticipated. In this study, we investigated the phase transition behavior of CrN, fabricated CrN devices, and evaluated them. Measurement results show that CrN phase change devices achieve operating speeds approximately 10 ns faster and a reduction in energy consumption by an order of magnitude compared with GST. Additionally, the drift of memory devices is small, and the rewriting performance is excellent.

Free Research Field

半導体デバイス材料

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の新しい窒化物系の相変化材料を探究することで、従来のカルコゲナイド系相変化材料の枠を拡大することが可能になる。本研究の達成により、電子デバイスの飛躍的な高性能化や、次世代高速大容量不揮発性メモリを要する人工知能分野への応用も大いに期待される。