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US 7,029,978 B2Granted
Controlling the location of conduction breakdown in phase change memories
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorRick K. Dodge
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A phase change memory may be formed in a pore of a semiconductor structure. A selected region of the pore may be processed so that breakdown in that region is either more or less likely. As a result, by reducing the variation in the location of breakdown from cell to cell and memory to memory, greater consistency can be achieved.
Claims30
A method comprising:
- forming a phase change memory pore including a breakdown layer in said pore and increasing the likelihood that a breakdown will occur in one region of said breakdown layer in said pore rather than another region of said breakdown layer in said pore.
A memory comprising:
- a breakdown layer between a pair of electrodes, said breakdown layer being ion implanted to increase the likelihood that a breakdown will occur in one region rather than another region of said layer.
A system comprising:
- a processor-based device;
- a wireless interface coupled to said processor-based device;
- and
- a semiconductor memory coupled to said device, said memory including a pair of electrodes, a breakdown layer between said pair of electrodes, said breakdown layer being ion implanted to increase the likelihood that a breakdown will occur in one region rather than another region of said layer.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- forming a breakdown layer between a pair of electrodes and increasing the likelihood that a breakdown will occur in one region rather than another region of said layer by damaging said one region and not damaging said other region.
A memory comprising:
- a breakdown layer between a pair of electrodes, said breakdown layer having a central region and a peripheral region between said electrodes, one of said central and said peripheral regions being damaged such that a breakdown is more likely to occur in one of said regions than the other of said regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.