Semiconductor structure, in particular phase change memory device having a uniform height heater

US8026173B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• STMicroelectronics SA

Inventors

• Ilya V. Karpov · Portland, US
• Yudong Kim · Cupertino, US
• Ming Jin · San Jose, US
• Shyam Prasad Teegapuram · Santa Clara, US
• Jinwook Lee · Seoul, KR

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 13, 2008
• Grant date: Sep 27, 2011
• Expiry date: Feb 2, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H10N70/8413

Abstract

A phase change memory formed by a plurality of phase change memory devices having a chalcogenide memory region extending over an own heater. The heaters have all a relatively uniform height. The height uniformity is achieved by forming the heaters within pores in an insulator that includes an etch stop layer and a sacrificial layer. The sacrificial layer is removed through an etching process such as chemical mechanical planarization. Since the etch stop layer may be formed in a repeatable way and is common across all the devices on a wafer, considerable uniformity is achieved in heater height. Heater height uniformity results in more uniformity in programmed memory characteristics.