Pt-Sb2Te as high speed phase-change materials with excellent thermal stability

Phase change memory (PCM) has been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for the next-generation nonvolatile memory. In this paper, we propose PtSb2Te (PST) phase change material for phase change memory. The doping of Pt improves the crystallization temperature and Ten-year data-retention temperature of Sb2Te to 180 degrees C, 192 degrees C, 204 degrees C and 117 degrees C,123 degrees C,137 degrees C, and refines the grain to about 10 nm. At the same time, the density change of Sb2Te film after phase transition is reduced to 4.19% due to the addition of Pt. There are no other new phases formed in PST film except hexagonal Sb2Te phase. For PST-based phase change memory cell, only 10 ns electrical pulse is required to complete the reversible operation with a Reset voltage lower than 4.3 V. At the same time, the number of cycle operations of the memory cell exceeds 10(5) and it has a lower resistance drift coefficient as 0.019.