Phase changeable memory devices including nitrogen and/or silicon and methods for fabricating the same
Phase-changeable memory devices and method of fabricating phase-changeable memory devices are provided that include a phase-changeable material pattern of a phase-changeable material that may include nitrogen atoms and/or silicon atoms. First and second electrodes are electrically connected to the phase-changeable material pattern and provide an electrical signal thereto. The phase-changeable material pattern may have a polycrystalline structure.
1. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a phase-changeable material on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, and wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material.
2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the phase-changeable material has a polycrystalline structure.
3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the phase-changeable material further comprises nitrogen atoms.
4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the phase-changeable material comprises Ge—Sb—Te—Si, As—Sb—Te—Si, As—Ge—Sb—Te—Si, Sn—Sb—Te—Si, In—Sn—Sb—Te—Si, Ag—In—Sb—Te—Si, 5A group element—Sb—Te—Si, 6A group element—Sb—Te—Si, 5A group element—Sb—Se—Si, and/or 6A group element—Sb—Se—Si.
5. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material;
a transistor including a source region, a drain region and a gate electrode;
a lower interconnection electrically coupled to the drain region; and
an upper metal interconnection electrically coupled to one of the first and second electrodes;
wherein the other of the first and second electrodes is electrically coupled to the source region.
6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode comprises comprise a conductive material containing nitrogen, a conductive material containing carbon, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, titanium suicide, tantalum silicide and/or a combination thereof.
7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the first conductive electrode further includes aluminum, an aluminum-copper alloy, an aluminum-copper-silicon alloy, tungsten suicide, copper, tungsten titanium and/or a combination thereof.
8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the conductive material containing nitrogen comprises titanium nitride, tantalum nitride, molybdenum nitride, niobium nitride, titanium silicon nitride, titanium aluminum nitride, titanium boron nitride, zirconium silicon nitride, tungsten silicon nitride, tungsten boron nitride, zirconium aluminum nitride, molybdenum silicon nitride, molybdenum aluminum nitride, tantalum silicon nitride, tantalum aluminum nitride, titanium oxide nitride, titanium aluminum oxide nitride, tungsten oxide nitride and/or tantalum oxide nitride.
9. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, and wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material,
wherein the phase-changeable material further comprises nitrogen atoms, and wherein the nitrogen atoms included in the phase-changeable material are from about 0.1% to about 20% by atomic percentage.
10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the silicon atoms are from about 0.25 to about 8 atomic percent and the nitrogen atoms from about 0.25 to about 10 atomic percent of the phase-changeable material.
11. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage, and wherein the phase-changeable material comprises (Te a Sb b Ge 100-(a+b))n Si 100-n , wherein a≦80, 5≦b≦50, 85≦n≦99.9, where a,b and 100-(a+b) are atomic percentages with respect to the TeSbGe composition and n and 100-n are atomic percentages with respect to the total composition; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material.
12. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, and wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material,
wherein the phase-changeable material further comprises nitrogen atoms, and wherein the phase-changeable material comprises (Te a Sb b Ge 100-(a+b))n Si c N 100(n+c) , wherein a≦80, 5≦b≦50, 0.25≦c≦8 90≦n≦99.75, where a,b and 100-(a+b) are atomic percentages with respect to the TeSbGe composition and n, c and 100-(n+c) are atomic percentages with respect to the total composition.
13. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, and wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material,
wherein the phase-changeable material further comprises nitrogen atoms, and wherein the phase-changeable material comprises (Te a Sb b Ge 100-(a+b))n Si c N 100-(n+c) , wherein a≦80, 5≦b≦50, 0.1≦c≦15, 80≦n≦99.9, where a,b and 100-(a+b) are atomic percentages with respect to the TeSbGe composition and n, c and 100-(n+c) are atomic percentages with respect to the total composition.
14. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material, wherein the phase-changeable material includes silicon atoms, wherein the silicon atoms included in the phase-changeable material comprise from about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage, and wherein the phase-changeable material comprises A x B 100-x , wherein component A is tellurium, selenium, sulfur, and/or polonium and component B is antimony, arsenic, germanium, tin, phosphorus, silver, oxygen, indium and/or bismuth and wherein x≦80 and x and 100-x are atomic percentages; and
a first electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material.
15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the silicon atoms are from about 0.25 to about 8 atomic percent.
16. The device of claim 14 , wherein the phase-changeable material further comprises nitrogen atoms from about 0.1 to about 20 atomic percent.
17. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a phase-changeable material on the semiconductor substrate and doped with silicon atoms of about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode and a second electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material.
18. A phase-changeable integrated circuit memory device, comprising:
a phase-changeable material doped with silicon atoms of about 0.1% to about 15% by atomic percentage, wherein the phase-changeable material is further doped with nitrogen atoms to a level in a range between about 0.1% and about 20% by atomic percentage; and
a first electrode and a second electrode electrically coupled to the phase-changeable material.
19. The device of claim 18 , wherein the phase-changeable material is doped with silicon atoms to a level in a range between about 0.25% and about 8%, and the phase-changeable material is doped with nitrogen atoms to a level in a range between about 0.25% and about 10% by atomic percentage.