Resistance Drift Research Articles

Unveiling structural characteristics for ultralow resistance drift in BiSb-Ge2Sb2Te5 materials for phase-change neuron synaptic devices

Phase-change materials are among the leading candidates that satisfy the need for in-memory computing or computational memory. Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) is the representative material among them, but amorphous resistance drift in GST limits its cyclable stability. Here, we optimize the properties and microstructure of a GST material by introducing a BiSb phase. Results reveal that the amorphous resistance of GST decreases after the addition of BiSb and the drift coefficient can be reduced to 0.004 because of the decreased disorder in the amorphous state. Further analysis of microstructural characteristics reveals that the distribution of the Bi-Sb phase restrains the diffusion of Sb/Te element and suppresses the formation of voids in GST phases. These features stabilize the nanostructures and suppress resistance drift to a certain extent because of the dual-phase coexistence. Moreover, the conduction of GST compounds changes from a p-type to an n-type, originating from n-type BiSb precipitations. Notably, resistance drift can be further decreased through liquid nitrogen treatment, which restricts atomic mobility in small volumes, changes electron binding energy, and improves the stability of amorphous phases during structural relaxation. Decrease in resistance drift originates from the narrowing of the band gap from 0.65 eV for GST to 0.33 eV for (BiSb)5.1(GST)94.9. Thus, our present research shows that doping GST with BiSb is one of the effective means to obtain ultralow resistance shift in phase-change neuron synaptic devices.

Density functional simulations of decomposition pathways of Ge-rich GeSbTe alloys for phase change memories

Germanium-rich GeSbTe alloys have recently emerged as promising materials for embedded phase change memories of interest for applications in the automotive sector thanks to the high crystallization temperature of their amorphous phase. Crystallization of Ge-rich GeSbTe alloys can lead to phase separation with segregation of crystalline Ge. The inhomogeneity of the resulting system brings, however, some drawbacks such as the drift of the electrical resistance with time of the crystalline phase. To mitigate these effects, a better understanding of the decomposition process is needed. In this work, we performed density functional calculations on possible decomposition pathways of the ${\mathrm{Ge}}_{5}{\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ alloy as an example of Ge-rich GeSbTe alloy on the Ge-${\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ pseudobinary line. The energetics of the transformation into crystalline Ge and a less Ge-rich alloy is investigated as well as the structural, electronic, and vibrational properties of some possible decomposition products such as ${\mathrm{Ge}}_{3}{\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ or ${\mathrm{Ge}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{1}$, among several others, in both the crystalline and amorphous phases.

Enhancing the Data Reliability of Multilevel Storage in Phase Change Memory with 2T2R Cell Structure.

Multilevel storage and the continuing scaling down of technology have significantly improved the storage density of phase change memory, but have also brought about a challenge, in that data reliability can degrade due to the resistance drift. To ensure data reliability, many read and write operation technologies have been proposed. However, they only mitigate the influence on data through read and write operations after resistance drift occurs. In this paper, we consider the working principle of multilevel storage for PCM and present a novel 2T2R structure circuit to increase the storage density and reduce the influence of resistance drift fundamentally. To realize 3-bit per cell storage, a wide range of resistances were selected as different states of phase change memory. Then, we proposed a 4:3 compressing encoding scheme to transform the output data into binary data states. Therefore, the designed 2T2R was proven to have optimized storage density and data reliability by monitoring the conductance distribution at four time points (1 ms, 1 s, 6 h, 12 h) in 4000 devices. Simulation results showed that the resistance drift of our proposed 2T2R structure can significantly improve the storage density of multilevel storage and increase the data reliability of phase change memory.

Nickel-Oxide Based Thick-Film Gas Sensors for Volatile Organic Compound Detection

In this paper, we report on the development of a highly sensitive and humidity-tolerant metal-oxide-based volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor, capable of rapidly detecting low concentrations of VOCs. For this, we successfully fabricated two different thicknesses of nickel oxide (NiO) sensors using a spin-coating technique and tested them with seven different common VOCs at 40% r.h. The measured film thickness of the spin-coated NiO was ~5 μm (S-5) and ~10 μm (S-10). The fastest response and recovery times for all VOCs were less than 80 s and 120 s, respectively. The highest response (Rg/Ra = 1.5 for 5 ppm ethanol) was observed at 350 °C for both sensors. Sensors were also tested in two different humidity conditions (40% and 90% r.h.). The humidity did not significantly influence the observed sensitivity of the films. Furthermore, S-10 NiO showed only a 3% drift in the baseline resistance between the two humidity conditions, making our sensor humidity-tolerant compared to traditional n-type sensors. Thus, we propose thick-film NiO (10 μm) sensing material as an interesting alternative VOC sensor that is fast and humidity-tolerant.

Exploiting Resistance Drift Characteristics to Improve Reliability of LDPC-Assisted Phase-Change Memory

Phase-change memory (PCM) as emerging non-volatile memory has attracted more attention and considered as the promising replacement of the main memory. PCM has shown good scalability and high storage density, but data storage reliability has become a challenge and concern. When data are written into PCM cells by a phase transition between amorphous and crystalline, the resistance of each state drifts as the increase of storage time due to structural relaxation. As a result, raw bit error rates (RBER) become higher and higher, severely degrading the data storage reliability (i.e., an important problem in PCM). In this paper, we first find that high error percentage exists between the full amorphous and amorphous states in multilevel cell (MLC) PCM via a preliminary experiment, which is the main factor leading to high RBER. Then, we analyze why this phenomenon exists in PCM from the view of the resistance drift. Finally, by exploiting the resistance drift characteristics, we propose drift compensation and drift-aware LDPC decoding schemes to improve reliability of PCM. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes can significantly reduce the RBER and LDPC decoding iterations.

Theory of coupled resistive drift and resistive drift ballooning instabilities in fusion plasma

Drift wave instabilities (DWI) associated with the two-fluid dynamics seems to be responsible for anomalous transport in modern day tokamaks. Ballooning instabilities tend to exchange flux tubes of different pressure, resulting in convective transport. The micro-level turbulence (drift wave) is coupled with the macro-level (ballooning mode) dynamics in fusion experiments. The co-existence of DWI and drift ballooning instabilities (DBI) is discussed in this work using a four-field plasma model. The formulation preserves both the microscopic and macroscopic dynamics of plasma. To demonstrate the coupling, a new dispersion relation is derived to analyze stability of the coupled modes in a non-uniform magnetized plasma. Linear stability of coupled drift-ballooning and drift-acoustic modes have been explored. The two-fluid effect (micro-level influence) through diamagnetic drift frequency for electrons and curvature drift frequency on unstable modes are demonstrated.

Multi-level phase-change memory with ultralow power consumption and resistance drift

By controlling the amorphous-to-crystalline relative volume, chalcogenide phase-change memory materials can provide multi-level data storage (MLS), which offers great potential for high-density storage-class memory and neuro-inspired computing. However, this type of MLS system suffers from high power consumption and a severe time-dependent resistance increase (“drift”) in the amorphous phase, which limits the number of attainable storage levels. Here, we report a new type of MLS system in yttrium-doped antimony telluride, utilizing reversible multi-level phase transitions between three states, i.e., amorphous, metastable cubic and stable hexagonal crystalline phases, with ultralow power consumption (0.6–4.3 pJ) and ultralow resistance drift for the lower two states (power-law exponent < 0.007). The metastable cubic phase is stabilized by yttrium, while the evident reversible cubic-to-hexagonal transition is attributed to the sequential and directional migration of Sb atoms. Finally, the decreased heat dissipation of the material and the increase in crystallinity contribute to the overall high performance. This study opens a new way to achieve advanced multi-level phase-change memory without the need for complicated manufacturing procedures or iterative programming operations.

Bonding nature and optical contrast of TiTe2/Sb2Te3 phase-change heterostructure

Chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) are regarded as the leading candidate for storage-class non-volatile memory and neuro-inspired computing. Recently, using the TiTe2/Sb2Te3 material combination, a new framework – phase-change heterostructure (PCH), has been developed and proved to effectively suppress the noise and drift in electrical resistance upon memory programming, largely reducing the inter-device variability. However, the atomic-scale structural and chemical nature of PCH remains to be fully understood. In this work, we carry out thorough ab initio simulations to assess the bonding characteristics of the PCH. We show that the TiTe2 crystalline nanolayers do not chemically interact with the surrounding Sb2Te3, and are stabilized by strong covalent and electrostatic Ti–Te interactions, which create a prohibitively high barrier for atomic migration along the pulsing direction. We also find significant contrast in computed dielectric functions in the PCH, suggesting possible optical applications of this class of devices. With the more confined space and therefore constrained phase transition compared to traditional PCM devices, the recently introduced class of PCH-based devices may lead to improvements in phase-change photonic and optoelectronic applications with much lower stochasticity during programming.

Assessment of RELAP5/MOD3.2 for simulating density wave oscillation with a two-phase natural circulation test facility

The slight boiling mode (SBM) of the nuclear heating reactor (NHR) designed to operating under two-phase natural circulation with low vapor quality and PWR-type reactor design is rigorously constrained by the flow instability and the extent of saturated boiling in the core. The objective of this study is to evaluate the applicability of the RELAP5 code to simulate flow instability in natural circulation systems and then to quantitatively estimate the operating parameters space of the SBM. Based on a well-scaled facility of NHR200, a RELAP5 model is developed. After a general assessment, sensitivity analysis and frequency spectrum analysis of flow resistance coefficients, numerical method, and drift velocity are further conducted for better understanding the deviations existing in simulations. It can be found that the nature of density wave oscillation (DWO) can be revealed by the RELAP5 code from the reasonable agreements between the simulation results and experimental data. Furthermore, a reasonable calibration of the drift velocity can greatly improve the accuracy of both static parameters and oscillating characteristic frequency. Ultimately, quantitative calculation of the operating parameter space is achieved with the RELAP5 code assisted by the dimensionless number Nsub/Npch. This work paves the way for studying the start-up and operating characteristics of SBM.

Cluster of Oseltamivir-Resistant and Hemagglutinin Antigenically Drifted Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Viruses, Texas, USA, January 2020.

Four cases of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection were detected among inhabitants of a border detention center in Texas, USA. Hemagglutinin of these viruses belongs to 6B.1A5A-156K subclade, which may enable viral escape from preexisting immunity. Our finding highlights the necessity to monitor both drug resistance and antigenic drift of circulating viruses.

Numerical turbulence simulations of intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of magnetized plasmas

Intermittent fluctuations in the boundary of magnetically confined plasmas are investigated by numerical turbulence simulations of a reduced fluid model describing the evolution of the plasma density and electric drift vorticity in the two-dimensional plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. Two different cases are considered: one describing resistive drift waves in the edge region and another including only the interchange instability due to unfavorable magnetic field curvature in the scrape-off layer. Analysis of long data time series obtained by single-point recordings is compared to predictions of a stochastic model describing the plasma fluctuations as a superposition of uncorrelated pulses. For both cases investigated, the radial particle density profile in the scrape-off layer is exponential with a radially constant scale length. The probability density function for the particle density fluctuations in the far scrape-off layer has an exponential tail. Radial motion of blob-like structures leads to large-amplitude bursts with an exponential distribution of peak amplitudes and the waiting times between them. The average burst shape is well described by a two-sided exponential function. The frequency power spectral density of the particle density is simply that of the average burst shape and is the same for all radial positions in the scrape-off layer. The fluctuation statistics obtained from the numerical simulations are in excellent agreement with recent experimental measurements on magnetically confined plasmas. The statistical framework defines a new validation metric for boundary turbulence simulations.

Effect of Nitrogen Doping on the Crystallization Kinetics of Ge2Sb2Te5.

Among the phase change materials, Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST-225) is the most studied and is already integrated into many devices. N doping is known to significantly improve some key characteristics such as the thermal stability of materials and the resistance drift of devices. However, the origin, at the atomic scale, of these alterations is rather elusive. The most important issue is to understand how N doping affects the crystallization characteristics, mechanisms and kinetics, of GST-225. Here, we report the results of a combination of in situ and ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations carried out on specifically designed samples to evidence the influence of N concentration on the crystallization kinetics and resulting morphology of the alloy. Beyond the known shift of the crystallization temperature and the observation of smaller grains, we show that N renders the crystallization process more “nucleation dominated” and ascribe this characteristic to the increased viscosity of the amorphous state. This increased viscosity is linked to the mechanical rigidity and the reduced diffusivity resulting from the formation of Ge–N bonds in the amorphous phase. During thermal annealing, N hampers the coalescence of the crystalline grains and the cubic to hexagonal transition. Making use of AbStrain, a recently invented TEM-based technique, we evidence that the nanocrystals formed from the crystallization of N-doped amorphous GST-225 are under tension, which suggests that N is inserted in the lattice and explains why it is not found at grain boundaries. Globally, all these results demonstrate that the origin of the effect of N on the crystallization of GST-225 is not attributed to the formation of a secondary phase such as a nitride, but to the ability of N to bind to Ge in the amorphous and crystalline phases and to unbind and rebind with Ge along the diffusion path of this atomic species during annealing.

Measurement of Onset of Structural Relaxation in Melt‐Quenched Phase Change Materials

AbstractChalcogenide phase change materials enable non‐volatile, low‐latency storage‐class memory. They are also being explored for new forms of computing such as neuromorphic and in‐memory computing. A key challenge, however, is the temporal drift in the electrical resistance of the amorphous states that encode data. Drift, caused by the spontaneous structural relaxation of the newly recreated melt‐quenched amorphous phase, has consistently been observed to have a logarithmic dependence in time. Here, it is shown that this observation is valid only in a certain observable timescale. Using threshold‐switching voltage as the measured variable, based on temperature‐dependent and short timescale electrical characterization, the onset of drift is experimentally measured. This additional feature of the structural relaxation dynamics serves as a new benchmark to appraise the different classical models to explain drift.

Piezoresistive bond lines for timber construction monitoring\u2014experimental scale-up

Several laboratory studies and experiments have demonstrated the usability of polymer films filled with electrically conductive filler as piezoresistive material. Applied to adhesives, the glue lines of wood products can achieve multifunctional—thus bonding and piezoresistive/strain sensing—properties. Based on critical load areas in timber constructions, upscaled test setups for simplified load situations were designed, especially with regard to a stress-free electrical contact. In a second step, another upscaling was done to small glulam beams. Based on an experimental test sequence, the piezoresistive reactions as well as the behaviour until failure were analysed. The results show in all cases that a piezoresistive reaction of the multifunctionally bonded specimens was measurable, giving a difference in the extent of relative change. Additionally, measured phenomena like inverse piezoresistive reactions, electrical resistance drift and the absence of a piezoresistive reaction were discussed, based on additional strain analysis by digital image correlation. A model of macroscopic and microscopic strains influencing the piezoresistive reaction of the electrically conductive bond line in wood was used to explain all experimental results. Finally, a first scale-up of piezoresistive bond lines from laboratory samples to glulam beams was possible and successful.

Designing artificial carbon clusters using Ge2Sb2Te5/C superlattice-like structure for phase change applications

Resistance drift and heat loss are two challenges in phase change memory. In this work, superlattice-like (SLL) Ge2Sb2Te5/C film was fabricated, which was designed to suppress the resistance drift and heat loss of the device. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were used to evaluate the evolution of C nanofilms at the atomic scale and most C atoms were found accumulated spontaneously as nanometer-scale carbon clusters. Long-range atomic migrations were restrained because of the artificial carbon clusters, which contributed to the resistance drift suppression. The fabricated carbon nanolayers were also believed to serve as an artificial thermal barrier, and an energy-inexpensive amorphization process based on the device has been achieved. With two-dimensional finite element analysis, we found that the suppressed heat dissipation in the programming regions were related to the low interfacial thermal conductance between the C and Ge2Sb2Te5. The Ge2Sb2Te5/C SLL thin film demonstrates potential for high-performance phase change memory applications.

Pulsed laser deposited stoichiometric GaSb films for optoelectronic and phase change memory applications

Phase-change memory (PCM) holds great potential in realizing the combination of DRAM-like speeds with non-volatility and large storage capacity for future electronic devices including in-memory computing. However, various (reliability) issues related to e.g. too high programming current (power consumption), resistance drift, data retention (low crystallization temperature), phase separation and density change upon switching stand in the way to make PCM really attractive. GaSb thin films have interesting optical and electrical properties which are attractive for optoelectronic and PCM applications but so far reported stoichiometric GaSb compositions are Sb-rich which produced reliability issues in PCM devices. In this study, we managed to deposit stoichiometric GaSb thin films using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) by varying deposition parameters and conditions. Using electron microscopy, the morphology of deposited films and target surface and the compositional deviation from exact stoichiometry have been investigated. We show that the directional nature of laser-target interaction is directly responsible for film quality in PLD in which particulates with high number density are generated due to directional pillar formation. Suppressing this pillar formation, by a simple 180° target rotation, showed an increase in deposition yield by 60%, exact stoichiometric transfer from target to substrate, and large reduction in particulate density. Moreover, from XRD analysis, we show that exact stoichiometric transfer from target to substrate is crucial for structural integrity of the produced films. Temperature induced structural transformation from resistivity vs. temperature measurements show a high crystallization temperature of 250 °C for stoichiometric GaSb thin film. We believe the exact stoichiometric GaSb thin films with reduced particulate densities and favorable structural and (opto)electronic properties are attractive for future PCM devices.

Low resistance-drift characteristics in Cr2Ge2Te6-based phase change memory devices with a high-resistance crystalline phase

Resistance drift affects the reliability of data reading in phase change material (PCM)-based memory devices. In general, resistance drift occurs in high-resistance amorphous state in the PCM-based memory devices. The conduction mechanism such as Poole-Frenkel conduction (PF) in amorphous PCMs causes severe resistance drift in the device. Cr2Ge2Te6 (CrGT) exhibiting a phase transition between low-resistance amorphous and high-resistance crystalline phases demonstrates band conduction in the amorphous phase and mixed conduction with band conduction and nearest-neighbor hopping conduction in the crystalline phase. Since the conduction mechanisms of both phases in the CrGT are not governed by PF, the resistance-drift characteristics are expected to be different from that in conventional PCMs. In this study, the resistance-drift characteristics of the CrGT-based devices were investigated. The fabricated CrGT-based devices exhibited a cyclic endurance of ~7 × 105 times with a clear difference in resistance between the high- and low-resistance states. The drift coefficient, v, at 40 °C was evaluated for the CrGT- and Ge-Sb-Te (GST)-based devices; the value of v for the CrGT-based device was smaller than that for the GST-based device in both high- and low-resistance states. The current–voltage analysis revealed that mixed-conduction mechanism plays an important role to suppress the resistance drift in the high-resistance state of the CrGT-based devices. These findings provide new insights to realize a low resistance-drift PCM-based memory device.

Temperature activated conductivity of Ge2Sb2Te5: connection to the variation of Fermi level and implications on resistance drift

The non-Arrhenius behaviour of Ge2Sb2Te5 conductivity is attributed to the non-linear temperature dependence of the Fermi level, assuming extended state conduction by free holes. The temperature-dependent Fermi level is shown to alter values of activation energy and prefactor for conductivity so that their exact determination becomes impossible using the conductivity data alone. However, if one assumes the temperature dependence of the Fermi level to be a parabolic function. Then, two of three model parameters can be retrieved; to obtain the third parameter one has to make an assumption about the value of prefactor for conductivity. Applying the proposed analysis scheme to Ge2Sb2Te5, reasonable values of Fermi level position are obtained and the change of Fermi level as a result of resistance drift phenomenon is demonstrated.

The Role of Suboptimal Concentrations of Nebulized Tobramycin in Driving Antimicrobial Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates in Cystic Fibrosis.

Antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa may be driven by exposure to suboptimal concentrations of tobramycin antibiotic delivered by less efficient nebulizers. P. aeruginosa isolates (no. = 114; 32 first + 82 chronic) were challenged invitro employing extrapolated peak and trough concentrations of tobramycin inhalation solution (TIS), corresponding to 3 nebulizers: Pari LC Plus, Sidestream12NEB400, and MistyNeb2035G. Bacterial persistence and antibiotic susceptibility to tobramycin was determined following 4 TIS cycles: (i) 28 d ON, (ii) 28 d ON + 28 d OFF, (iii) 2 × 28 d ON, and (iv) 28 d ON + 28 d ON + 28 d OFF. All first isolates were eradicated at peak and trough concentrations except for the trough concentration corresponding to Sidestream 12NEB400 (bactericidal activity 87%). For chronic isolates, peak concentrations eradicated 88%, 90%, and 92%, and trough concentrations eradicated 43%, 62%, and 85%, with the Sidestream12NEB400, MistyNeb2035G, and Pari LC Plus nebulizers, respectively. A statistically significant increase in antibiotic resistance with sensitive, intermediate, and resistant P. aeruginosa was noted following cycles (i) through (iv) at trough concentrations with the Sidestream 12NEB400 and MistyNeb2035G nebulizers. There was a significant reduction in tobramycin resistance following a 28-d OFF cycle, and no difference was noted following 1 × 28 d ON versus 2 × 28 d ON cycles. Our results indicate that suboptimal concentrations of tobramycin drove increased antibiotic resistance, emulating standard cycles of ON/OFF inhaled therapy. This was evident at extrapolated tobramycin concentrations at trough levels corresponding to less efficient nebulizers by initially allowing for the survival of intermediate and resistant organisms, because nebulizer performance did not achieve critical antibiotic concentrations sufficient to eradicate the organism, and by allowing the development of resistance in those cells that were able to survive the initial tobramycin challenge. Transferred to clinical practice, for people with cystic fibrosis on TIS treatment, it is important that clinicians employ an efficient nebulizer that helps mitigate an upward drift in antibiotic resistance, thereby protecting the clinical value of TIS within treatment for cystic fibrosis.

Influence of crystallization temperature and atmosphere on the phase composition, microstructure and electrical properties of Ni–Mn–O thin films

Nickel manganite thin films were prepared by chemical solution deposition from nitrate and acetate precursors on polished alumina substrates. By variation of crystallization temperature between 650 ​°C and 900 ​°C and atmosphere during cooling of the films, the morphology, phase formation and electrical properties of the films were investigated. The electrically conductive spinel phase was formed as a main phase independent of processing conditions exhibiting NTCR characteristics. Cooling down in nitrogen atmosphere favored the decomposition of the spinel phase into nickel oxide and a spinel phase with higher manganese content, but it also reduced the resistance drift of the samples. From this finding it can be deduced that a reduced oxygen partial pressure influences defect equilibria and by that decreases cation vacancy concentration. This supports the assumption that cation redistribution by a cation vacancy diffusion mechanism is a relevant mechanism of resistance drift in such thin films.