Integrated circuit having a resistive memory

US7787279B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Qimonda AG · DE

Inventors

• Thomas Happ · Tarrytown, US
• Cay-Uwe Pinnow · Birkenfeld, DE
• Ralf Symanczyk · Bad Aibling, DE
• Klaus-Dieter Ufert · Unterschleißheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 26, 2006
• Grant date: Aug 31, 2010
• Expiry date: Oct 8, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H10N70/8828

Abstract

An integrated semiconductor memory includes a storage medium (6) arranged between two electrodes (10, 20), which storage medium may be a phase change medium, for example. The storage medium (6) can be put into a first state or a second state by means of an electric current, as a result of which an item of information can be stored. According to embodiments of the invention, a layer plane (L) is provided in which impurity particles made from a material (4) are embedded, as a result of which the current density in the storage medium is locally increased and the programming current required for reprogramming is reduced. As a result, the current consumption of memory elements containing a phase change medium is reduced, so that for the first time they can be embodied with minimal feature size, together with other components such as transistors, and integrated into a single semiconductor circuit and no longer have to be arranged in separate subcircuits.