Bakan, G.Gerislioglu, B.Dirisaglik, F.Jurado, Z.Sullivan, L.Dana, A.Lam, C.Gokirmak A.Silva, H.2018-04-122018-04-122016-100021-8979http://hdl.handle.net/11693/36643Phase-change memory (PCM) devices are enabled by amorphization- and crystallization-induced changes in the devices' electrical resistances. Amorphization is achieved by melting and quenching the active volume using short duration electrical pulses (∼ns). The crystallization (set) pulse duration, however, is much longer and depends on the cell temperature reached during the pulse. Hence, the temperature-dependent crystallization process of the phase-change materials at the device level has to be well characterized to achieve fast PCM operations. A main challenge is determining the cell temperature during crystallization. Here, we report extraction of the temperature distribution on a lateral PCM cell during a set pulse using measured voltage-current characteristics and thermal modelling. The effect of the thermal properties of materials on the extracted cell temperature is also studied, and a better cell design is proposed for more accurate temperature extraction. The demonstrated study provides promising results for characterization of the temperature-dependent crystallization process within a cell.EnglishAmorphizationCellsCharacterizationCytologyExtractionPhase change memoryTemperature distributionCrystallization processElectrical resistancesMeasured voltagesPhase change memory (pcm)Phase change memory cellsTemperature dependentTemperature extractionThermal properties of materialsPhase change materialsArticle10.1063/1.4966168