Amorphous metal alloy electrodes in non-volatile device applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017213959-A1
Application number	US-201415324691-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 30, 2014
Priority date	Jul 30, 2014
Publication date	Jul 27, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A non-volatile memory device includes two electrodes and an active region disposed between and in electrical contact with the electrodes. The active region contains a switching material capable of carrying a species of dopants and transporting the dopants under an electrical field. The electrode is an amorphous conductive material comprising 5 to 90 at % of a first metal, 5 to 90 at % of a second metal, and 5 to 90 at % of a metalloid, wherein the metalloid is any of carbon, silicon, and boron. The metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal account for at least 70 at % of the amorphous conductive material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A non-volatile memory device including:
two or three electrodes; and an active region disposed between and in electrical contact with the electrodes, the active region containing a switching material capable of carrying a species of dopants and transporting the dopants under an electrical field, wherein an electrode comprises an amorphous metal alloy comprising
5 to 90 at % of a first metal, wherein the first metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, and platinum,
5 to 90 at % of a second metal, wherein the second metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, and platinum, wherein the second metal is different than the first metal; and
5 to 90 at % of a metalloid, wherein the metalloid is selected from the group consisting of carbon, silicon, and boron,
wherein the metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal account for at least 70 at % of the amorphous conductive material.

2 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory device is a memristor.

3 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein each of the electrodes comprises the amorphous conducting material.

4 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the active region comprises a primary active region and a dopant source region.

5 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the amorphous conductive material further comprises from 5 to 85 at % of a third metal, wherein the third metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, and platinum, and wherein the third metal is different than the first metal and the second metal.

6 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the amorphous conductive material further comprises from 0.1 to 15 at % of a dopant, the dopant being selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen, and mixtures thereof.

7 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the amorphous conductive material has a surface RMS roughness of less than 1 nm.

8 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the amorphous conductive material has a thermal stability of at least 400° C. and has an oxidation temperature of at least 700° C.

9 . The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the amorphous conductive material has an atomic dispersity of at least 12% between at least two of the metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal relative to one another.

10 . A nanoscale crossbar array comprising:
a first group of conductive nanowires running in a first direction; a second group of conductive nanowires running in a second direction and intersecting the first group of conductive nanowires; and a plurality of switching devices formed at intersections of the first and second groups of conductive nanowires, each switching device having a first electrode formed by a first nanowire of the first group and a second electrode formed by a second nanowire of the second group, and an active region disposed at the intersection between the first and second nanowires and comprising a switching material capable of carrying a species of dopants and transporting the dopants under an electrical field, wherein an electrode comprises an amorphous conductive material having a composition given by: 5 to 90 at % of a first metal, wherein the first metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, and platinum, 5 to 90 at % of a second metal, wherein the second metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, and platinum, wherein the second metal is different than the first metal; and 5 to 90 at % of a metalloid, wherein the metalloid is selected from the group consisting of carbon, silicon, and boron, wherein the metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal account for at least 70 at % of the amorphous conductive material.

11 . The nanoscale crossbar array of claim 10 in which each switching device includes a selector.

12 . A method of manufacturing a non-volatile memory device with two or three electrodes and an active region disposed between and in electrical contact with the electrodes, the active region containing a switching material capable of carrying a species of dopants and transporting the dopants under an electrical field, wherein the method comprises forming the electrode from an amorphous conducting material having a composition given by:
5 to 90 at % of a first metal, wherein the first metal is titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, or platinum; 5 to 90 at % of a second metal, wherein the second metal is titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, or platinum, and wherein the second metal is different than the first metal; and 5 to 90 at % of a metalloid, wherein the metalloid is carbon, silicon, or boron; wherein the metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal account for at least 70 at % of the amorphous conductive material.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the step of forming the electrode includes:
mixing the metalloid, the first metal, and the second metal to form a blend, and sputtering the blend to form the amorphous electrode.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the amorphous conducting material further comprises from 5 to 85 at % of a third metal, wherein the third metal is titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, iridium, or platinum, wherein the second metal is different than the first metal and the second metal.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the electrode has a surface RMS roughness of less than 1 nm, a thermal stability of at least 400° C., an oxidation temperature of at least 700° C., and an oxide growth rate of less than 0.05 nm/min.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Gibson Gary
• Abbott Jr James Elmer
• Li Zhiyong

Classifications

• C22C27/02

  Alloys based on vanadium, niobium, or tantalum · CPC title

• C22C27/04

  Alloys based on tungsten or molybdenum · CPC title

• C22C30/00

  Alloys containing less than 50% by weight of each constituent · CPC title

• C22C5/04 Primary

  Alloys based on a platinum group metal · CPC title

• H01L45/085

  Electricity · mapped topic