High performance of Er-doped Sb2Te material used in phase change memory

To date, operation speed and data retention are still bottlenecks for phase-change memory. Doping impurity is a practical strategy to improve these performances of phase-change memory. Here, to avoid the precipitation of impurity, we choose erbium (Er) dopant due to the most matched structure with parental Sb2Te (EST), which is manifested by both experimental and simulation results that Er locates at lattice position. The device tests show the excellent comprehensive performances: operation speed as fast as 6 ns and 10-year data retention as high as 121 degrees C. This excellent amorphous thermal stability stems from the strong Er-Te bonds, and these stable local patterns stabilize glassy states and result in high stability. Our study not only demonstrates that the performance of designed EST meets the requirement of phase-change memory, but also provides general doping rules to obtain better comprehensive performance. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigates the strategy of doping to improve the performance of phase-change memory, choosing erbium as the dopant to enhance operation speed and data retention. The designed EST phase-change memory meets the requirements and provides general doping rules for better comprehensive performance.