Use of ordered mesoporous SiO₂ as protection against thermal disturbance in phase-change memory

To commercialize phase change memory (PCM), a drastic change of resistivity at specific temperatures and a low power consumption to minimize heat transfer to neighboring cells are needed. Therefore, in this work, an ordered mesoporous SiO₂ thin film of 45% porosity was introduced as an intercell dielectric in Ge₁Sb₄Te₇ PCM because it has a low thermal conductivity (0.177 W/m K). By using a hybrid layer structure of mesoporous and dense SiO₂ films, the temperature of neighboring cells could be decreased from 393.3 K to 353.2 K, corresponding to a 100-fold change in resistivity.