IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,336,193
Granted Patent B2
US 12,336,193 · App. 17/937,094 · Granted Jun 17, 2025

Devices including a passive material between memory cells and conductive access lines, and related electronic devices

Inventors: Innocenzo Tortorelli (Milan, IT); Fabio Pellizzer (Boise, ID)
Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
H10B63/80H10B63/24H10N70/828H10N70/841H10N70/20H10N70/231H10N70/826H10N70/882H10N70/8833
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,336,193
App. No.
17/937,094
Granted
Jun 17, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A semiconductor device includes first conductive lines extending in a first direction, second conductive lines extending in a second direction, memory cells disposed between the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines, each memory cell disposed at an intersection of a first conductive line and a second conductive line, and a passive material between the memory cells and at least one of the first conductive lines and the second conductive lines. Related semiconductor devices and electronic devices are disclosed.

Claims (34)

1. A device, comprising:

memory cells disposed at an intersection between first conductive lines and second conductive lines, the memory cells comprising a chalcogenide material between a pair of electrodes; and

a passive material extending along the first conductive lines and exhibiting an electrical conductivity less than an electrical conductivity of the first conductive lines, the passive material spaced from the first conductive lines by a semimetal material.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the passive material is selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, tungsten silicon nitride, titanium silicon nitride, a metal nitride, silicon nitride, a metal silicide, and combinations thereof.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the passive material comprises aluminum oxide or tungsten silicon nitride.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the passive material exhibits a non-linear resistance responsive to exposure to changes in an electric field to which the passive material is exposed.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first conductive lines comprise one or more of aluminum, copper, nickel, chromium, cobalt, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, platinum, gold, iridium, tantalum, tungsten, a conductive metal nitride, and a conductive metal silicide.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein each memory cell further comprises an interfacial material comprising tungsten between one of the electrodes of the pair of electrodes and the chalcogenide material.

7. An electronic device, comprising:

an input device;

an output device;

a processor device operably coupled to the input device and the output device; and

a memory device operably coupled to the processor device, the memory device comprising:

an array of memory cells, at least one memory cell of the array of memory cells comprising a memory material comprising a chalcogenide material;

a first conductive line contacting a first number of memory cells of the array of memory cells including the at least one memory cell;

a second conductive line contacting a second number of memory cells of the array of memory cells including the at least one memory cell;

a dielectric material adjacent the first conductive line and the first number of memory cells; and

a semimetal material adjacent to and overlying the dielectric material.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the at least one memory cell further comprises aluminum oxide adjacent the chalcogenide material.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the dielectric material comprises aluminum oxide.

10. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the semimetal material is coextensive with the dielectric material and the first conductive line.

11. A device, comprising:

a first conductive line extending in a first direction;

a second conductive line extending in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first conductive line;

a memory cell between the first conductive line and the second conductive line, the memory cell comprising a memory material between a first electrode and a second electrode;

a passive material extending adjacent to the first conductive line and between the first conductive line and the memory cell; and

a semimetal material adjacent to and overlying the passive material.

12. The device of claim 11 , further comprising an additional passive material extending adjacent to the second conductive line and between the second conductive line and the memory cell.

13. The device of claim 11 , wherein the passive material exhibits an electrical conductivity less than an electrical conductivity of the first conductive line.

14. The device of claim 1 , further comprising an additional passive material extending along the second conductive lines.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the additional passive material extends substantially perpendicular to the passive material.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the passive material is within a range of from about 0.5 nm to about 10 nm.

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein the semimetal material comprises a metal silicide.

18. The device of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the semimetal material is greater than a thickness of the passive material.

Continuity (3)
Division 16863555 · Apr 30, 2020
Continuation 15660491 · Jul 26, 2017
Related Publication 20230029529A1 · Feb 2, 2023
References Cited (45)
US 5536947A · Klersy et al. · 1996 [cited by applicant]
US 6356477B1 · Tran · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 7589343B2 · Lowrey · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 8294219B2 · Malhotra et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8964463B2 · Ajika et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 8987702B2 · Mouli · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9018692B2 · Lung · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9166158B2 · Lengade et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9318532B2 · Tanaka et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9362494B2 · Pellizzer et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9577010B2 · Sciarrillo · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9711717B2 · Gotti et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9716225B2 · Chan et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9761798B2 · Kamimuta et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9881971B2 · Lindenberg · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 10483324B2 · Hsu · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20040113137A1 · Lowrey · 2004 [cited by examiner]
US 20050030787A1 · Lowrey et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20120217461A1 · Kobayashi et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20130048935A1 · Gotti et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130256624A1 · Kau · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20140361238A1 · Joshi et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150207066A1 · Ohba et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150279906A1 · Lindenberg · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20160064666A1 · Chan et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160163383A1 · Tortorelli et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160204343A1 · Gotti et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160293842A1 · Tortorelli et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160307963A1 · Hineman et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160351804A1 · Campbell · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20170084345A1 · Yang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170117328A1 · Terai · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170250339A1 · Sim et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170271592A1 · Lee et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170288138A1 · Lee et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170294483A1 · Terai et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20180114900A1 · Kamata · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180175109A1 · Choi et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190259813A1 · Takuya · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190348603A1 · Chan et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
CN 1506972A · 2004 [cited by applicant]
CN 101939838A · 2013 [cited by applicant]
Chinese First Office Action for Application No. 201810825243.7, issued Oct. 8, 2021, 19 pages. [cited by applicant]
Lee et al., Effect of Ge2Sb2Te5 Thermal Barrier on Reset Operations in Filament-Type Resistive Memory, IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 32, No. 11, Nov. 2011, pp. 1573-1575. [cited by applicant]
Son et al., Excellent Selector Characteristics of Nanoscale VO2 for High-Density Bipolar ReRAM Applications, IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 32, No. 11, Nov. 2011, pp. 1579-1591. [cited by applicant]