Composite memory material comprising a mixture of phase-change memory material and dielectric material
AssigneeEnergy Conversion Devices, Inc.
InventorsWolodymyr Czubatyj, Stanford R. Ovshinsky, David A. Strand, Patrick Klersy, Sergey Kostylev, Boil Pashmakov
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Abstract
A composite memory material comprising a mixture of active phase-change memory material and inactive dielectric material. The phase-change material includes one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Te, Se, Ge, Sb, Bi, Pb, Sn, As, S, Si, P, O and mixtures or alloys thereof. A single cell memory element comprising the aforementioned composite memory material, and a pair of spacedly disposed contacts.
Claims14
An electrically operated, directly overwritable single-cell memory element comprising:
- a volume of memory material defining a single-cell memory element comprising a heterogeneous mixture of active phase-change material and inactive dielectric material;
- and
- a pair of spacedly disposed contacts for supplying an electrical signal to said volume of memory material, said contacts providing terminals for reading information stored in and writing information to said memory element.
An electrically operated, directly overwritable, multibit, single cell memory element comprising:
- a volume of memory material defining a single cell memory element, said memory material constituting means for assuming a large dynamic range of electrical resistance values with the ability to be set directly to one of a plurality of resistance values within said dynamic range without the need to be set to a specific starting or erased resistance value, regardless of the previous resistance value of said material in response to a selected electrical input signal so as to provide said single cell with multibit storage capabilities;
- and
- a pair of spacedly disposed contacts for supplying said electrical input signal to set said memory material to a selected resistance value within said dynamic range, wherein at least one of said spacedly disposed contacts is a mixture of a first contact material and a second contact material, wherein said first contact material includes carbon, and wherein said second contact material includes at least one transition metal element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.