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Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena
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Research Highlights
Phase Change Memory Technology
Geoffrey W. Burr, Matthew J. Breitwisch, Michele Franceschini, Davide Garetto, Kailash Gopalakrishnan, Bryan Jackson, Bülent Kurdi, Chung Lam, Luis A. Lastras, Alvaro Padilla, Bipin Rajendran, Simone Raoux, and Rohit S. Shenoy
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 223 (2010); doi:10.1116/1.3301579
The authors survey the current state of phase change memory (PCM), a nonvolatile solid-state memory technology built around the large electrical contrast between the highly resistive amorphous and highly conductive crystalline states in so-called phase change materials. PCM technology has made rapid progress in a short time, having passed older technologies in terms of both sophisticated demonstrations of scaling to small device dimensions, as well as integrated large-array demonstrators with impressive retention, endurance, performance, and yield characteristics. This article ranges all the way from basic physics to the device characteristics needed for characteristic applications, while also surveying ongoing materials science research, discussing fabrication and integration issues specific to PCM, and laying out the roles of intermediate resistance states, coding, and 3-D stacking in producing a potentially ultra-high-density yet highly-reliable new nonvolatile memory.
Low-dimensional oxide nanostructures on metals: hybrid systems with novel properties
Falko P. Netzer, Francesco Allegretti, Svetlozar Surne
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 1 (2010); doi:10.1116/1.3268503
Low-dimensional oxide nanostructures supported on well-defined metal surfaces raise scientific interest both on a fundamental level and for potential technological applications. These systems may be regarded as artificially created hybrid materials with novel emergent properties, supporting new concepts of geometrical structure, electronics and magnetism, complex phase diagrams and a particular chemical reactivity.
Recently Published
In a planar configuration, multiple electrical connections to a single molecule require an atomic scale precision of the wiring and an atomically flat supporting surface. Current nanofabrication techniques cannot achieve this on the same surface of a wafer. A double sided interconnection process fl ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 978 (2010)] published Thu Sep 02, 2010.
Plasma oxidation of the c-Si substrate through a very thin gate oxide layer can be observed during HBr/O2/Ar based plasma overetch steps of gate etch processes. This phenomenon generates the so-called silicon recess in the channel and source/drain regions of the transistors. In this work, the autho ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 926 (2010)] published Fri Aug 27, 2010.
Electron beam lithography in silicon dioxide has been investigated with energies ranging from 0.5 up to 6 keV. The etch ratio of SiO2 has been studied and interpreted with regard to the limited penetration of electrons at such low energies. Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to investiga ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 940 (2010)] published Tue Aug 31, 2010.
In situ photoresist (PR) ashing processes are attractive because of the ease of process integration with plasma etching processes. The authors have examined the performance of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a source gas for in situ PR ashing processes compatible with ultralow k (ULK) materials and compare ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 952 (2010)] published Wed Sep 01, 2010.
Titanium nitride (TiN) thin film resistors (TFRs) have been fabricated by reactive sputter deposition. The TFRs were characterized in terms of composition, thickness, and resistance. Furthermore, a first assessment of the resistor reliability was made by measurements of the resistivity (ρ) versus t ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 912 (2010)] published Fri Aug 20, 2010.
AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were irradiated with 5 MeV protons at fluences from 2×1011 to 2×1015 protons/cm2. Changes from 10% to 35% of the saturation drain current and the source-drain resistances were observed for the HEMTs exposed to the proton irradiations due to radiati ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, L47 (2010)] published Tue Aug 31, 2010.
InAlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) have been grown and fabricated on Fe-doped semi-insulating c-plane GaN substrates. The problematic parasitic leakage caused by interface charge between the epitaxial layers and the GaN substrate as well as any adverse effect of the substrat ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 908 (2010)] published Thu Aug 19, 2010.
The onionlike carbon (OLC) was fabricated by annealing nanodiamond synthesized by detonation at the annealing temperatures from 500 to 1400 °C and at the pressure of approximate 2 Pa. A high-resolution transmission-electron microscope was used to characterize the microstructures of the OLC as-fabri ... [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 935 (2010)] published Tue Aug 31, 2010.
