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Multiscale Analysis of Phase Change Memory


EMSL Project ID
47625

Abstract

The ever increasing demands for energy-efficient, high-density, and fast-speed information technology have spurred extensive research interests in non-silicon resistor-based technologies. The most noteworthy example is the phase change memory (PCM), which has emerged as a promising technology for next-generation logic/memory design. Due to its superb scalability and high energy efficiency, the nonvolatile PCM has the potential to offer much more powerful and greener solution to build information centers and various commodity electronic devices than the existing silicon based device technologies.

However, compared to the thorough understanding of the silicon based devices, the fundamental understanding of the emerging PCM devices is still missing. This is why the PCM-oriented Technology CAD (TCAD) methodology is still at its infancy stage, compared to the maturity of the silicon based TCAD tools. This project aims at developing hierarchical multiscale PCM analysis methodologies, by combining experiment and simulation. The general purposes are: (1) enriching the fundamental understanding of PCM device operation, especially the PCM mesoscopic electron transport mechanism; (2) investigating fundamental physical scaling limit of PCM technology; and (3) developing the multiscale PCM-oriented TCAD methodology to assist future-generation PCM device design.

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2012-10-08
End Date
2013-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

M.P. Anantram
Institution
University of Washington

Related Publications

Liu J, X Xu, and MP Anantram. 2014. "Role of Inelastic Electron–Phonon Scattering in Electron Transport through Ultra-Scaled Amorphous Phase Change Material Nanostructures." Journal of Computational Electronics 13(3):620-626. doi:10.1007/s10825-014-0579-7