Methods of depositing phase change materials and methods of forming memory
View Patent ↗A method of forming a phase change material which having germanium and tellurium therein includes depositing a germanium-containing material over a substrate. Such material includes elemental-form germanium. A gaseous tellurium-comprising precursor is flowed to the germanium-comprising material and tellurium is removed from the gaseous precursor to react with the elemental-form germanium in the germanium-comprising material to form a germanium and tellurium-comprising compound of a phase change material over the substrate. Other implementations are disclosed.
1. A method of depositing a tellurium-comprising phase change material onto a substrate, comprising:
forming a monolayer comprising Te(OR) t onto a substrate from gaseous Te(OR) 4 , where R is alkyl and t is less than 4; and
providing a reducing agent to the monolayer to remove (OR) t ligand from the Te and forming there-from a tellurium-comprising phase change material on the substrate.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing produces the phase change material to have no greater than 10 atomic percent oxygen.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing produces the phase change material to have no greater than 5 atomic percent oxygen.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing produces the phase change material to have no detectable oxygen therein.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the reducing agent comprises at least one of NH 3 , H 2 , CH 2 O, and CH 2 O 2 .
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the reducing agent comprises NH 3 .
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the tellurium-comprising phase change material further comprises Ge.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the tellurium-comprising phase change metal further comprises Ge and Sb.
9. The method of claim 1 comprising forming the monolayer to also comprise Te(OR) w Q z from gaseous Te(OR) x Q y , where Q is a halogen, x is less than 4, and y is 4−x; and where at least one of w is less than x, or z is less than y.
10. A method of forming memory, comprising:
forming inner electrode material over a substrate;
forming phase change material over the inner electrode material, the forming of phase change material comprising:
forming a monolayer comprising Te(OR) t onto a substrate from gaseous Te(OR) 4 , where R is alkyl and t is less than 4; and
providing a reducing agent to the monolayer to remove (OR) t ligand from the Te and forming there-from a tellurium-comprising phase change material on the substrate.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising forming an outer electrode material over the tellurium-comprising phase change material.
12. The method of claim 10 comprising forming the monolayer to also comprise Te(OR) w Q z from gaseous Te(OR) x Q y , where Q is a halogen, x is less than 4, and y is 4−x; and where at least one of w is less than x, or z is less than y.
13. A method of depositing a phase change material onto a substrate, comprising:
forming a monolayer comprising Te(OR) w Q z onto a substrate from gaseous Te(OR) x Q y , where R is alkyl, Q is a halogen, x is less than 4, and y is 4-x; and where at least one of w is less than x, or z is less than y; and
providing a reducing agent to the monolayer to remove (OR) w ligand and Q from the Te and forming there-from a tellurium-comprising phase change material on the substrate.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the phase change material has no greater than 10 atomic percent oxygen and comprising another metal in addition to tellurium.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein both of w is less than x and z is less than y.
16. The method of claim 13 wherein only one of w is less than x and z is less than y.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein w is less than x.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein z is less than y.
19. The method of claim 13 wherein the forming the phase change material comprises forming the phase change material over an inner electrode material.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein the inner electrode material comprises at least one of tungsten and titanium nitride.