Material engineering in phase-change memory for low power consumption and multi-level storage

We investigated the influence of the phase-change materials on the performance of memory devices for low power consumption and multi-level storage. Doping N into chalcogenide phase-change materials results in higher resistivity and low-response for temperature. The former characteristic leads to high heating efficiency for phase change and thus reduces the power consumption to about 1/10. The latter characteristic makes it easier to control phase change process in the memory device for multi-level storage. By adopting a top heater structure, 16 distinct resistance levels are demonstrated in our lateral device.