Impact of Thermal Boundary Resistance on Thermoelectric Effects of the Blade-Type Phase-Change Random Access Memory Device

Xiaojuan Lian,Lei Wang,Cihui Yang,Qingying Ren,Xiang Wan,Wang Ren,Jinke Fu,Zhixuan Gao,Xiaoyan Liu,Jing Wen

doi:10.3389/fmats.2021.798398

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.

Highlights

To make machine think, infer, and behave like human being has always been the ultimate dream of the global scientists
As the negative polarity of the TE effects cools the active region of the Phase-change random access memory (PCRAM) device, the temperature inside the GST layer is lower than that obtained from the positive current polarity
Results clearly indicate that the thermal boundary resistance (TBR) at GST-SiO2 insulation plays a dominant role in determining the interfacial temperature and required amorphization current for positive and negative polarities in comparison with the TBR at GST-heater interface and electric interfacial resistance (EIR) at GST-heater interface

Summary

Introduction

Infer, and behave like human being has always been the ultimate dream of the global scientists. One certain physical state of the NVMs e.g., electric resistance, can be continuously modulated by means of external excitations, which can be harnessed to achieve important functionalities of arithmetic and logic computing (Feldmann et al, 2017; Sebastian et al, 2019; Adam, 2020). This undoubtedly renders NVMs a capability of working in non-von Neumann mode, opening a route towards the success of hardware-based ANNs

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Conclusion