Reduced contact area of sidewall conductor
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorGuy C. Wicker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method including, in a dielectric material over a contact on a substrate, forming a trench to the contact; introducing an electrode material along the sidewalls of the trench; introducing a phase change material over material along a first sidewall; and modifying the electrode material along the sidewalls such that only the material along the first sidewall acts as a conductive path between the contact and the phase change material. An apparatus including a chalcogenide memory element; a contact; and a heater element comprising two leg portions, a first leg portion coupled to the contact and the chalcogenide memory element, and only the first leg portion acts as a conductive path between the contact and the chalcogenide memory element.
Claims13
A method comprising:
- in a dielectric material over a contact on a substrate, forming a trench to the contact, the trench having a first sidewall formed from a first point at a surface of the dielectric material to a second point at the contact;
- introducing an electrode material along the first sidewall and a second sidewall of the trench;
- introducing a phase change material such that the phase change material is electrically coupled to the electrode material at the first point of the first sidewall of the trench;
- and
- modifying the electrode material along the sidewalls such that only the electrode material along the first sidewall acts as a conductive path between the contact and the phase change material.
A method comprising:
- in a dielectric material over a contact on a substrate, forming a trench to the contact, the trench having a first sidewall formed from a first point at a surface of the dielectric material to a second point at the contact;
- introducing an electrode material along the first sidewall and a second sidewall of the trench;
- modifying the electrode material along the sidewalls to make a portion of the electrode material along the first sidewall of the trench conductive and a portion of the material along the second sidewall of the trench nonconductive;
- and
- introducing a phase change material such that the phase change material is electrically coupled to the first point of the first sidewall of the trench.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.