Switching and programming dynamics in phase-change memory cells

Emerging phase-change memory (PCM) technology for non-volatile applications presents many potential advantages in terms of scalability, endurance and program/read speed. While several integration issues have still to be solved before achieving volume-production stage, the fundamental physics of chalcogenide switching and phase-change behaviour has still to be comprehensively understood. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the switching and programming transient in PCM cells. It is shown that the cell parasitic capacitance can lead to a marked current overshoot in the programming transient. As evidenced by experiments, this overshoot is able to melt and quench the active material as in a reset operation. The parasitic reset results in a series distribution of crystalline and amorphous phases after program. The analysis of array cell capacitance instead indicates that no parasitic reset is to be expected, allowing for a localized crystallization during program, as previously obtained by numerical simulations.