|Publication number||US7579613 B2|
|Application number||US 11/959,708|
|Publication date||Aug 25, 2009|
|Filing date||Dec 19, 2007|
|Priority date||Jun 17, 2005|
|Also published as||CN1881640A, CN100418244C, CN100524610C, CN101071753A, US7321130, US20060284279, US20080105862|
|Publication number||11959708, 959708, US 7579613 B2, US 7579613B2, US-B2-7579613, US7579613 B2, US7579613B2|
|Inventors||Hsiang Lan Lung, Shih-Hung Chen|
|Original Assignee||Macronix International Co., Ltd.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (100), Non-Patent Citations (45), Referenced by (22), Classifications (17), Legal Events (1)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/155,067 filed on 17 Jun. 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,321,130, which is incorporated by reference herein.
International Business Machines Corporation, a New York corporation; Macronix International Corporation, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation, and Infineon Technologies A.G., a German corporation, are parties to a Joint Research Agreement.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high density memory devices based on phase change based memory materials, including chalcogenide based materials and other materials, and to methods for manufacturing such devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Phase change based memory materials are widely used in read-write optical disks. These materials have at least two solid phases, including for example a generally amorphous solid phase and a generally crystalline solid phase. Laser pulses are used in read-write optical disks to switch between phases and to read the optical properties of the material after the phase change.
Phase change based memory materials, like chalcogenide based materials and similar materials, also can be caused to change phase by application of electrical current at levels suitable for implementation in integrated circuits. The generally amorphous state is characterized by higher resistivity than the generally crystalline state, which can be readily sensed to indicate data. These properties have generated interest in using programmable resistive material to form nonvolatile memory circuits, which can be read and written with random access.
The change from the amorphous to the crystalline state is generally a lower current operation. The change from crystalline to amorphous, referred to as reset herein, is generally a higher current operation, which includes a short high current density pulse to melt or breakdown the crystalline structure, after which the phase change material cools quickly, quenching the phase change process, allowing at least a portion of the phase change structure to stabilize in the amorphous state. It is desirable to minimize the magnitude of the reset current used to cause transition of phase change material from crystalline state to amorphous state. The magnitude of the reset current needed for reset can be reduced by reducing the size of the phase change material element in the cell and of the contact area between electrodes and the phase change material, so that higher current densities are achieved with small absolute current values through the phase change material element.
One direction of development has been toward forming small pores in an integrated circuit structure, and using small quantities of programmable resistive material to fill the small pores. Patents illustrating development toward small pores include: Ovshinsky, “Multibit Single Cell Memory Element Having Tapered Contact,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,112, issued Nov. 11, 1997; Zahorik et al., “Method of Making Chalogenide [sic] Memory Device,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,277, issued Aug. 4, 1998; Doan et al., “Controllable Ovonic Phase-Change Semiconductor Memory Device and Methods of Fabricating the Same,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,253, issued Nov. 21, 2000.
Problems have arisen in manufacturing such devices with very small dimensions, and with variations in process that meets tight specifications needed for large-scale memory devices. It is desirable therefore to provide a memory cell structure having small dimensions and low reset currents, and a method for manufacturing such structure that meets tight process variation specifications needed for large-scale memory devices. It is further desirable to provide a manufacturing process and a structure, which are compatible with manufacturing of peripheral circuits on the same integrated circuit.
A phase change random access memory PCRAM device is described suitable for use in integrated circuits. Technology described herein includes a memory device comprising a first electrode having a top side, a second electrode having a top side and an insulating member between the first electrode and the second electrode. The insulating member has a thickness between the first and second electrodes near the top side of the first electrode and the top side of the second electrode. A thin film bridge crosses the insulating member, and defines an inter-electrode path between the first and second electrodes across the insulating member. The inter-electrode path across the insulating member has a path length defined by the width of the insulating member. For the purpose of illustration, the bridge can be thought of as having a structure like a fuse. For the phase change memory however, and unlike a fuse, the bridge comprises memory material having at least two solid phases that are reversible, such as a chalcogenide-based material or other related material, by applying a current through the material or applying a voltage across the first and second electrodes.
The volume of memory material subject of phase change can be very small, determined by the thickness of the insulating member (path length in the x-direction), the thickness of the thin film used to form the bridge (y-direction), and the width of the bridge orthogonal to the path length (z-direction). The thickness of the insulating member and the thickness of the thin film of memory material used to form the bridge are determined in embodiments of the technology by thin film thicknesses which are not limited by the two graphic processes used in manufacturing the memory cell. The width of the bridge is also smaller than a minimum feature size F that is specified for a lithographic process used in patterning the layer of material in embodiments of the present invention. In one embodiment, the width of the bridge is defined using photoresist trimming technologies in which a mask pattern is used to define a lithographical photoresist structure on the chip having the minimum feature size F, and the photoresist structure is trimmed by isotropic etching to achieve a feature size less than F. The trimmed photoresist structure is then used to lithographically transfer the more narrow pattern onto the layer of memory material. Also, other techniques can be used to form narrow lines of material in a layer on an integrated circuit. Accordingly, a phase change memory cell with simple structure achieves very small reset current and low power consumption, and is easily manufactured.
In embodiments of the technology described herein, an array of memory cells is provided. In the array, a plurality of electrode members and insulating members therebetween comprise an electrode layer on an integrated circuit. The electrode layer has a top surface which is substantially planar in some embodiments of the invention. The corresponding plurality of thin film bridges across the insulating members between pairs of electrode members comprise memory elements on the top surface of the electrode layer. A current path from a first electrode in the electrode layer through a thin film bridge on the top surface of the electrode layer to a second electrode in the electrode layer is established for each memory cell in the array.
Circuitry below the electrode layer on integrated circuits described herein can be implemented using well understood technology for logic circuitry and memory array circuitry, such as CMOS technology. In one embodiment, an isolation device such as a transistor has a terminal beneath at least a second electrode in an electrode pair, and a conductor forms a connection between the terminal of the transistor and the second electrode for a memory cell in the array. According to a representative embodiment, the circuitry below the electrode layer includes a plurality of bias lines, such as common source conductors, and a plurality of isolation devices. The isolation devices in the plurality have a first terminal coupled to a bias line in the plurality of bias lines, a second terminal, and a conductor extending between the second terminal and the first electrode in the electrode layer of a corresponding memory cell in the array. In addition, a plurality of word lines is provided in the circuitry beneath the electrode layer. Word lines in the plurality are coupled with isolation devices for memory cells along respective rows in the array, so that control signals on the word lines control connection of memory cells along the respective rows to one of the bias lines in the plurality of bias lines. In one array embodiment described herein, bias lines in the plurality of bias lines are arranged adjacent corresponding pairs of rows in the array, and two rows of isolation devices in the plurality of isolation devices coupled with said corresponding pairs of rows of memory cells are coupled to a shared bias line in the plurality of bias lines.
Also, in one array embodiment described herein, circuitry above the electrode layer includes a plurality of bit lines. In an embodiment having bit lines above the electrode layer that is described herein, electrode members in the electrode layer which act as a first electrode for a memory cell are shared so that a single electrode member provides a first electrode for two memory cells in a column of the array. Also, in an embodiment that is described herein, bit lines in the plurality of bit lines are arranged along corresponding columns in the array, and two adjacent memory cells in the corresponding columns share a contact structure for contacting said first electrodes.
A method for manufacturing a memory device is also described. The method comprises forming an electrode layer on a substrate which comprises circuitry made using front-end-of-line procedures. The electrode layer in this method has a top surface. The electrode layer includes a first electrode and a second electrode, and an insulating member between the first and second electrodes for each phase change memory cell to be formed. The first and second electrodes and the insulating member extend to the top surface of the electrode layer, and the insulating member has a width between the first and second electrodes at the top surface, as described above in connection with the phase change memory cell structures. The method also includes forming a bridge of memory material on the top surface of the electrode layer across the insulating member for each memory cell to be formed. The bridge comprises a film of memory material having a first side and a second side and contacts the first and second electrodes on the first side. The bridge defines an inter-electrode path between the first and second electrodes across the insulating member having a path length defined by the width of the insulating member. In embodiments of the method, an access structure over the electrode layer is made by forming a patterned conductive layer over said bridge, and forming a contact between said first electrode and said patterned conductive layer.
In an embodiment of the manufacturing method, the electrode layer is made by a process comprising a number of steps including the following:
In an embodiment of the manufacturing method, the bridges of memory material are made by a process comprising a number of steps including the following:
The method described herein for formation of the bridge, for use in a memory cell in the PCRAM, can be used to make a very small bridge, for other uses. Nano-technology devices with very small bridge structures are provided using materials other than phase change to materials, like metals, dielectrics, organic materials, semiconductors, and so on. In general, products containing nonvolatile memory in which information is stored based on variations in the resistivity of solid-state materials associated with crystalline/amorphous phase change in such materials and the phase change is initiated without moving parts, by heat generated by electrical current directly through such materials, or electrical current indirectly through other means, are described herein. Also, manufacturing methods for such products are described.
A detailed description of thin film fuse phase change memory cells, arrays of such memory cells, and methods for manufacturing such memory cells, is provided with reference to
Likewise, the bridge thickness T (y-dimension) can be very small in embodiments of the memory cell. This bridge thickness T can be established using a thin film deposition technique on the top surfaces of the first electrode 12, insulating member 14, and second electrode 13. Thus, embodiments of the memory cell have a bridge thickness T about 50 nm or less. Other embodiments of the memory cell have a bridge thickness of about 20 nm or less. In yet other embodiments, the bridge thickness T is about 10 nm or less. It will be understood that the bridge thickness T can be even smaller than 10 nm, using thin film deposition techniques such as atomic layer deposition and the like, according to the needs of the particular application, so long as the thickness is sufficient for the bridge performs its purpose as memory element, having at least two solid phases, reversible by a current or by a voltage applied across the first and second electrodes.
As illustrated in
Embodiments of the memory cell include phase change based memory materials, including chalcogenide based materials and other materials, for the bridge 11. Chalcogens include any of the four elements oxygen (O), sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te), forming part of group VI of the periodic table. Chalcogenides comprise compounds of a chalcogen with a more electropositive element or radical. Chalcogenide alloys comprise combinations of chalcogenides with other materials such as transition metals. A chalcogenide alloy usually contains one or more elements from column six of the periodic table of elements, such as germanium (Ge) and tin (Sn). Often, chalcogenide alloys include combinations including one or more of antimony (Sb), gallium (Ga), indium (In), and silver (Ag). Many phase change based memory materials have been described in technical literature, including alloys of: Ga/Sb, In/Sb, In/Se, Sb/Te, Ge/Te, Ge/Sb/Te, In/Sb/Te, Ga/Se/Te, Sn/Sb/Te, In/Sb/Ge, Ag/In/Sb/Te, Ge/Sn/Sb/Te, Ge/Sb/Se/Te and Te/Ge/Sb/S. In the family of Ge/Sb/Te alloys, a wide range of alloy compositions may be workable. The compositions can be characterized as TeaGebSb100−(a+b). One researcher has described the most useful alloys as having an average concentration of Te in the deposited materials well below 70%, typically below about 60% and ranged in general from as low as about 23% up to about 58% Te and most preferably about 48% to 58% Te. Concentrations of Ge were above about 5% and ranged from a low of about 8% to about 30% average in the material, remaining generally below 50%. Most preferably, concentrations of Ge ranged from about 8% to about 40%. The remainder of the principal constituent elements in this composition was Sb. These percentages are atomic percentages that total 100% of the atoms of the constituent elements. (Ovshinsky '112 patent, cols 10-11.) Particular alloys evaluated by another researcher include Ge2Sb2Te5, GeSb2Te4 and GeSb4Te7. (Noboru Yamada, “Potential of Ge—Sb—Te Phase-Change Optical Disks for High-Data-Rate Recording”, SPIE v. 3109, pp. 28-37 (1997).) More generally, a transition metal such as chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), niobium (Nb), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt) and mixtures or alloys thereof may be combined with Ge/Sb/Te to form a phase change alloy that has programmable resistive properties. Specific examples of memory materials that may be useful are given in Ovshinsky '112 at columns 11-13, which examples are hereby incorporated by reference.
Phase change alloys are capable of being switched between a first structural state in which the material is in a generally amorphous solid phase, and a second structural state in which the material is in a generally crystalline solid phase in its local order in the active channel region of the cell. These alloys are at least bistable. The term amorphous is used to refer to a relatively less ordered structure, more disordered than a single crystal, which has the detectable characteristics such as higher electrical resistivity than the crystalline phase. The term crystalline is used to refer to a relatively more ordered structure, more ordered than in an amorphous structure, which has detectable characteristics such as lower electrical resistivity than the amorphous phase. Typically, phase change materials may be electrically switched between different detectable states of local order across the spectrum between completely amorphous and completely crystalline states. Other material characteristics affected by the change between amorphous and crystalline phases include atomic order, free electron density and activation energy. The material may be switched either into different solid phases or into mixtures of two or more solid phases, providing a gray scale between completely amorphous and completely crystalline states. The electrical properties in the material may vary accordingly.
Phase change alloys can be changed from one phase state to another by application of electrical pulses. It has been observed that a shorter, higher amplitude pulse tends to change the phase change material to a generally amorphous state. A longer, lower amplitude pulse tends to change the phase change material to a generally crystalline state. The energy in a shorter, higher amplitude pulse is high enough to allow for bonds of the crystalline structure to be broken and short enough to prevent the atoms from realigning into a crystalline state. Appropriate profiles for pulses can be determined, without undue experimentation, specifically adapted to a particular phase change alloy. In following sections of the disclosure, the phase change material is referred to as GST, and it will be understood that other types of phase change materials can be used. A material useful for implementation of a PCRAM described herein is Ge2Sb2Te5.
The electrode layer 31 includes electrode members 32, 33 and 34, which are separated from one another by an insulating member including fences 35 a and 35 b formed for example by a sidewall process as described below, and base member 39. The base member 39 can be thicker than the fences 35 a, 35 b in embodiments of the structure, and separates the electrode member 33 from the common source line 28. For example the base member can be for instance, 80 to 140 nm thick while the fences are much narrower, as needed to reduce capacitive coupling between the source line 28 and the electrode member 33. The fences 35 a, 35 b comprise a thin film dielectric material on the sidewalls of electrode members 32, 34 in the illustrated embodiment, with a thickness at the surface of the electrode layer 31 determined by the thin film thickness on the sidewalls.
A thin film bridge 36 of memory material, such as GST, overlies the electrode layer 31 on one side traversing across the fence member 35 a, forming a first memory cell, and a thin film bridge 37 of memory material, such as GST, overlies the electrode layer 31 on another side traversing across the fence member 35 b, forming a second memory cell.
A dielectric fill layer (not illustrated) overlies the thin film bridges 36, 37. The dielectric fill layer comprises silicon dioxide, a polyimide, silicon nitride or other dielectric fill materials. In embodiments, the fill layer comprises a relatively good insulator for heat as well as for electricity, providing thermal and electrical isolation for the bridges. Tungsten plug 38 contacts the electrode member 33. A patterned conductive layer 40, comprising metal or other conductive material, including bit lines in an array structure, overlies the dielectric fill layer, and contacts the plug 38 to establish access to the memory cells corresponding to the thin film bridge 36 and the thin film bridge 37.
In operation, access to the memory cell corresponding with bridge 36 is accomplished by applying a control signal to the word line 23, which couples the common source line 28 via terminal 25, plug 29, and electrode member 32 to the thin film bridge 36. Electrode member 33 is coupled via the contact plug 38 to a bit line in the patterned conductive layer 40. Likewise, access to the memory cell corresponding with bridge 37 is accomplished by applying a control signal to the word line 24.
It will be understood that a wide variety of materials can be utilized in implementation of the structure illustrated in
A controller implemented in this example using bias arrangement state machine 69 controls the application of bias arrangement supply voltages 68, such as read, program, erase, erase verify and program verify voltages. The controller can be implemented using special-purpose logic circuitry as known in the art. In alternative embodiments, the controller comprises a general-purpose processor, which may be implemented on the same integrated circuit, which executes a computer program to control the operations of the device. In yet other embodiments, a combination of special-purpose logic circuitry and a general-purpose processor may be utilized for implementation of the controller.
In some embodiments a structure for thermally insulating the bridges is provided, in addition to or instead of the dielectric fill layer. In one example, the thermally insulating structure is formed by providing a cap layer of thermally insulating material over the bridges (218) and optionally over the electrode layer, before applying the dielectric fill. Representative materials for the layer of thermally insulating material include materials that are a combination of the elements silicon Si, carbon C, oxygen O, fluorine F, and hydrogen H. Examples of thermally insulating materials which are candidates for use for the thermally insulating cap layer include SiO2, SiCOH, polyimide, polyamide, and fluorocarbon polymers. Other examples of materials which are candidates for use for the thermally insulating cap layer include fluorinated SiO2, silsesquioxane, polyarylene ethers, parylene, fluoro-polymers, fluorinated amorphous carbon, diamond like carbon, porous silica, mesoporous silica, porous silsesquioxane, porous polyimide, and porous polyarylene ethers. In other embodiments, the thermally insulating structure comprises a gas-filled void in the dielectric fill formed over the bridge 218 for thermal insulation. A single layer or combination of layers can provide thermal and electrical insulation.
An alternative to the technique described with reference to
In a next step as illustrated in
In the next step as illustrated in
The procedure illustrated in
In yet another alternative technique, self-aligned, sub-lithographic bridges can be implemented as illustrated in all
In the next step, as shown in
As shown in
In the next step, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As shown in
In the next step illustrated by
Next, as shown in
In a next set of steps, the portions 509 of memory material on top of the cap layer 501, and the cap layer 501 are removed, and the trenches are filled covering the strips 508 of memory material with dielectric, and the structure is planarized to form a layer of dielectric 512, as shown in
As shown in
Then, a side wall structure 454 is applied to the sacrificial bridges 453, which acts as an etch mask for the electrode structures in the electrode layer, that includes the electrode members 400, 404, 405, with the insulating members 402, 403.
As shown in
FIGS. 47 through 54A-54B illustrate another alternative technique for making narrow lines of material on a substrate, which can be applied to manufacturing the bridges of memory material over an electrode layer as described herein. As shown in
As shown in
Using the patterned photoresist layer 652 as a mask, the layer 651 is etched to a first depth to that is not completely through the layer 651 to form more shallow trenches 656, 657, 658 as shown in
The resulting dual-trenched layer 651 is filled by a metal, such as copper, or a copper alloy, with appropriate adhesion and barrier layers as known in the art to form the layer 664 illustrated in
In the next step, shown by
As illustrated in
A first step in the illustrated embodiment of the self-aligned contact structure process is to form a fill layer 820 over the parallel conductive lines 801-806, as shown in
Next, as illustrated in
Most phase change memory cells known to applicant are made by forming a small pore filled with phase change material, and top and bottom electrodes contacting the phase change material. The small pore structure is used to reduce the programming current. This invention reduces programming current without formation of the small pore, resulting in better process control. Furthermore, there are no top electrodes on the cell, avoiding some possible damage of the phase change material from processes used to form the top electrode.
A cell described herein comprises two bottom electrodes with a dielectric spacer in between and a bridge of phase change material on the top of the electrodes spanning across the spacer. The bottom electrodes and dielectric spacer are formed in an electrode layer over front-end-of-line CMOS logic structures or other function circuit structures, providing a structure that easily support embedded memory and function circuits on a single chip, such as chips referred to as system on a chip SOC devices.
Advantages of an embodiment described herein include that the phase change happens on the center of the bridge over the dielectric spacer, rather than on the interface with an electrode, providing better reliability. Also, the current used in reset and programming is confined in a small volume allowing high current density and resultant local heating at lower reset current levels and lower reset power levels. The structure in embodiments described herein allows two dimensions of the cell to be defined by thin film thickness, achieving better process control at nanometer scales. Only one dimension of cell can be defined by a lithographic process using a trimmed mask layer, which avoids more complex shrinking techniques.
While the present invention is disclosed by reference to the preferred embodiments and examples detailed above, it is to be understood that these examples are intended in an illustrative rather than in a limiting sense. It is contemplated that modifications and combinations will occur to those skilled in the art, which modifications and combinations will be within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the following claims.
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|U.S. Classification||257/2, 257/5, 257/E45.002|
|Cooperative Classification||H01L45/1691, G11C13/0004, H01L27/2436, H01L45/1675, H01L45/144, H01L45/1226, H01L45/06|
|European Classification||H01L45/06, H01L45/16P6, H01L45/16P2, H01L45/14B6, H01L27/24F, H01L45/12D2|