Nucleation switching in phase change memory

The authors propose a simple physical model of threshold switching in phase change memory cells based on the field induced nucleation of conductive cylindrical crystallites. The model is solved analytically and leads to a number of predictions including correlations between the threshold voltage V-th and material parameters, such as the nucleation barrier and radius, amorphous layer thickness, as well as V-th versus temperature and switching delay time. The authors have carried out verifying experiments, and good agreement is achieved. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.