Analysis of Temperature in Phase Change Memory Scaling

We analyze constant-voltage isotropic and nonisotropic scaling issues for phase change memory (PCM) based on electrothermal physics. Various analytical and simulation models of general and typical PCM cells that support the analysis is also provided. The analysis shows that the maximum temperature in the PCM cell, which is a key parameter for PCM operation, is independent of geometrical sizes and depends only on the voltage and material properties. This leads to the minimum programming voltage concept, which is determined by material properties of the phase change material.