Microstructural Characterization in Reliability Measurement of Phase Change Random Access Memory

The cell failures after cycling endurance in phase-change random access memory (PRAM) have been classified into three groups, which have been analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Both stuck reset of the set state (D0) and stuck set of the reset state (D1) are due to a void created inside GeSbTe (GST) film or thereby lowering density of GST film. The decrease of the both set and reset resistances that leads to the tails from the reset distribution are induced from the Sb increase with cycles.