Thermal Properties of Nanostructured Electrodes for Phase Change Memory Devices
Abstract
The switching current for phase change memory devices, which is a key figure of merit for this technology, can be strongly influenced by heat conduction in the electrodes. Here we propose and characterize a novel multilayer electrode stack, which uses series thermal boundary resistances to impede heat loss from the memory cell. Picosecond time domain thermo reflectance captures the temperature-dependent thermal resistance of as deposited and post-annealed single and multi-layer stacks based on carbon, titanium nitride and tungsten nitride. The total thermal resistance of the W-WNx stack decreases from 3.9 to 3.6 m2 K GW-1 with annealing due to the reduction of interfacial defects. In contrast, the total thermal resistance of the C-TiN stack increases after annealing from 4.9 to 11.9 m2 K GW-1 likely due to interfacial mixing and disorder. The largest resistances reported here are equivalent to electrode films with thicknesses on the order of tens of nanometers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA542895
Entities
People
- Elah Bozorg-grayeli
- Jeremy A. Rowlette
- John P. Reifenberg
- Kenneth E. Goodson
- Matthew B Panzer
Organizations
- Stanford University