Chalcogenide programmable switches with SiGeSb heating layers

Fabrication of SiGeSb heating electrodes and their application for four-terminal chalcogenide programmable switches

“…In other words, at least four terminals are required to completely divide two distinct operations of programming and signal transmission. So far, the three-terminal device 6,7) and the fourterminal device in a planar configuration 8) were reported using a chalcogenide switch device; the three-terminal variant is a prototype preliminary to the fabrication of four-terminal devices while the four-terminal variant is based on a nanoscale lateral channel structure. Sophisticated electron-beam lithography is needed for fabrication and the feature size is relatively larger compared to a device with a vertical configuration.…”

“…As with all types of phase change memory, the performance of the switch device strongly depends on the properties of chalcogenide and the heater material. 6,7) Although SiGeSb thin films were already employed for the heating electrode material in the phase change memory 9) and the switch device, 7) the previous works were mainly focused on the device fabrication without any systematic studies on the preparation of the SiGeSb heating electrode. Thus, we report here the properties of SiGeSb thin films and heating electrodes in addition to the switch characteristics.…”