Improved thermal stability of N-doped Sb materials for high-speed phase change memory application

Compared with pure Sb, N-doped Sb material was proved to be a promising candidate for the phase change memory (PCM) use because of its higher crystallization temperature (∼250 °C), larger crystallization activation energy (3.53 eV), and better data retention ability (166 °C for 10 years). N-doping also broadened the band gap and refined grain size. The reversible resistance transition could be achieved by an electric pulse as short as 8 ns for the PCM cell based on N-doped Sb material. A lower operation power consumption (the energy for RESET operation 2.2 × 10−12 J) was obtained. In addition, N-doped Sb material showed a good endurance of 1.8 × 105 cycles.