Phase-change heterostructure enables ultralow noise and drift for memory operation

Keyuan Ding; Jiangjing Wang; Yuxing Zhou; He Tian; Lu Lu; Riccardo Mazzarello; Chunlin Jia; Wei Zhang; Feng Rao; Evan Ma

doi:10.1126/science.aay0291

Phase-change heterostructure enables ultralow noise and drift for memory operation

Science. 2019 Oct 11;366(6462):210-215. doi: 10.1126/science.aay0291. Epub 2019 Aug 22.

Authors

Keyuan Ding^#^{1

2}, Jiangjing Wang^#^{3

4}, Yuxing Zhou^#³, He Tian^#⁵, Lu Lu⁶, Riccardo Mazzarello⁷, Chunlin Jia^{6

8}, Wei Zhang⁹, Feng Rao^{10

11}, Evan Ma¹²

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
³ Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yulin University, Yulin 719000, China.
⁵ Center of Electron Microscopy, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁶ The School of Microelectronics, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁷ Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, JARA-FIT and JARA-HPC, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 52074, Germany.
⁸ Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52425, Germany.
⁹ Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. wzhang0@mail.xjtu.edu.cn fengrao@szu.edu.cn ema@jhu.edu.
¹⁰ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. wzhang0@mail.xjtu.edu.cn fengrao@szu.edu.cn ema@jhu.edu.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-system and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
¹² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. wzhang0@mail.xjtu.edu.cn fengrao@szu.edu.cn ema@jhu.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 31439757
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay0291

Abstract

Artificial intelligence and other data-intensive applications have escalated the demand for data storage and processing. New computing devices, such as phase-change random access memory (PCRAM)-based neuro-inspired devices, are promising options for breaking the von Neumann barrier by unifying storage with computing in memory cells. However, current PCRAM devices have considerable noise and drift in electrical resistance that erodes the precision and consistency of these devices. We designed a phase-change heterostructure (PCH) that consists of alternately stacked phase-change and confinement nanolayers to suppress the noise and drift, allowing reliable iterative RESET and cumulative SET operations for high-performance neuro-inspired computing. Our PCH architecture is amenable to industrial production as an intrinsic materials solution, without complex manufacturing procedure or much increased fabrication cost.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.