Advantages of Ta-Doped Sb₃Te₁ Materials for Phase Change Memory Applications

Phase change memory (PCM), a typical representative of new storage technologies, offers significant advantages in terms of capacity and endurance. However, among the research on phase change materials, thermal stability and switching speed performance have always been the direction where breakthroughs are needed. In this research, as a high-speed and good thermal stability material, Ta was proposed to be doped in Sb₃Te₁ alloy to improve the phase transition performance and electrical properties. The characterization shows that Ta-doped Sb₃Te₁ can crystallize at temperatures up to 232 °C and devices can operate at speeds of 6 ns and 8 × 10⁴ operation cycles. The reduction of grain size and the density change rate (3.39%) show excellent performances, which are both smaller than that of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (GST) and Sb₃Te₁. These properties conclusively demonstrate that Ta incorporation of Sb₃Te₁ alloy is a material with better thermal stability and faster crystallization rates for PCM applications.