R&D: Ultrafast Threshold Switching Dynamics in Phase Change Materials

Physica Status Solidi Rapid Research Letters has published an article written by Nishant Saxena,Phase Change Memory Lab, Advanced Memory and Computing Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036 Tamil Nadu, India, and Anbarasu Manivannan, Phase Change Memory Lab, Advanced Memory and Computing Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036 Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract: “Discovery of electrical switching in chalcogenide glasses by S.R. Ovshinsky, paved a new path for developing high-speed non-volatile electronic memory and high-performance computing solutions. This paper presents a review on the systematic understanding of threshold switching properties in various chalcogenide materials, Ovonic threshold switching (OTS) and Ovonic memory switching (OMS), the nature of threshold switching, voltage-dependent transient characteristics, and the role of threshold switching in governing the programming speed based on research efforts over the past six decades. Furthermore, realization of threshold switching in picosecond timescale, the commonalities between OTS and OMS and the possible underlying mechanism has been explored. Furthermore, a scheme of material classification based on threshold switching dynamics for ultrafast yet energy-efficient programming has been proposed for phase change memory with SRAM-like programming speed for future electronics.“