AUTHOR=Lian Xiaojuan , Fu Jinke , Gao Zhixuan , Ren Wang , Wan Xiang , Ren Qingying , Wen Jing , Yang Cihui , Liu Xiaoyan , Wang Lei TITLE=Impact of Thermal Boundary Resistance on Thermoelectric Effects of the Blade-Type Phase-Change Random Access Memory Device JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials VOLUME=8 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2021.798398 DOI=10.3389/fmats.2021.798398 ISSN=2296-8016 ABSTRACT=

Phase-change random access memory (PCRAM) is widely regarded as one of the most promising candidates to replace Flash memory as the next generation of non-volatile memories due to its high-speed and low-power consumption characteristics. Recent advent of the blade-type PCRAM with low programming current merit further confirms its prospects. The thermoelectric effects existing inside the PCRAM devices have always been an important factor that determines the phase-transformation kinetics due to a fact that it allows PCRAM to have electric polarity dependent characteristics. However, the potential physics governing the thermoelectric effects for blade-type PCRAM device still remains vague. We establish a three-dimensional (3D) electro-thermal and phase-transformation model to study the influences of thermal boundary resistance (TBR) and device scaling on the thermoelectric effects of the blade-type PCRAM during its “RESET” operation. Our research shows that the presence of TBR significantly improves the electric polarity-dependent characteristics of the blade-type PCRAM, and such polarity-dependent characteristic is found immune to the scaling of the device. It is therefore possible to optimize the thermoelectric effects of the blade-type PCRAM through appropriately tailoring the TBR parameters, thus further lowering resulting power consumption.