Method for forming a non-volatile memory cell, non-volatile memory cell formed according to said method and microelectronic device comprising such memory cells

Abstract

A method for forming a non-volatile memory cell intended to switch the memory cell from an unformed state to a formed state, the memory cell including an ordered stack of a lower electrode, a layer of insulating material and an upper electrode. The forming method includes a breakdown operation in which at least one laser shot is emitted towards the layer of insulating material to make the layer of insulating material active by making it pass from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, the memory cell being formed when the layer of insulating material is active.

Claims

1. A method for forming a non-volatile memory cell for switching said memory cell from an unformed state to a formed state, said memory cell including an ordered stack of a lower electrode, a layer of insulating material and an upper electrode, the method comprising performing a breakdown operation in which at least one laser shot is emitted towards the layer of insulating material to make said layer of insulating material active by making it pass from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, the memory cell being formed when the layer of insulating material is active, several laser shots being able to be emitted successively towards the layer of insulating material with, each, a laser shot power flux density greater than the laser shot power flux density of the preceding laser shot.

2. The forming method according to claim 1, further comprising: a) reading the memory cell, b) detecting the formed or unformed state of said memory cell, c) when the memory cell is in an unformed state, implementing laser shots, d) when the memory cell is in a formed state, carrying out a post-forming cycle to place said cell in an operating state.

3. The forming method according to claim 2, wherein steps a)-c) are repeated as long as the memory cell is in an unformed state, the power flux density of the laser shot being increased at each repetition of step c).

4. The forming method according to claim 2, wherein the post-forming cycle of step d) comprises several cycles, successive and reversible, of switching between the high resistance state and the low resistance state.

5. The forming method according to claim 1, wherein the breakdown operation is carried out with a laser of a power flux density comprised between 0.06 and 0.12 W/m.sup.2.

6. The forming method according to claim 1, wherein the breakdown operation is carried out with a laser beam of a diameter greater than three times the width and/or the length of the memory cell.

7. The forming method according claim 1, wherein the breakdown operation is carried out with a laser in which the pulses have a duration less than or equal to 1 s.

8. The forming method according to claim 1, wherein the breakdown operation is carried out with a laser beam emitted in a wavelength of the infrared or the ultraviolet.

9. A non-volatile memory cell including an ordered stack of a lower electrode, a layer of insulating material and an upper electrode, wherein the layer of insulating material is made active by a forming method according to claim 1 such that said layer of insulating material is capable, after forming, to switch in a reversible manner between a high resistance state and a low resistance state.

10. The non-volatile memory cell according to claim 9, wherein the upper electrode is made of titanium, the lower electrode is made of titanium nitride and the layer of insulating material is made of hafnium oxide.

11. The non-volatile memory cell according to claim 9, comprising a selection device, connected to the stack of the lower electrode, the layer of insulating material and the upper electrode, to control the current flowing in said stack.

12. A microelectronic device comprising a plurality of memory cells according to claim 9, laid out beside each other.

13. The microelectronic device according to claim 12, wherein the memory cells are laid out in a crossbar type architecture.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will become clear from reading the description, illustrated by the figures in which:

(2) FIG. 1, already described, schematically represents an example of resistive random access memory cell of OxRRAM type;

(3) FIG. 2 schematically represents an example of a microelectronic device comprising several resistive random access memory cells according to the invention;

(4) FIG. 3 schematically represents the functional diagram of the method for forming a resistive random access memory cell according to the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 represents, in the form of a table, examples of voltage values to apply to a memory cell in phases of writing and erasing said cell;

(6) FIGS. 5A and 5B represent examples of values of resistances, respectively in the HRS state and in the LRS state, obtained by a memory cell formed by the forming method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AT LEAST ONE EMBODIMENT

(7) An example of a method for forming a resistive random access memory cell implemented by emission of at least one laser shot is described in detail hereafter, with reference to the appended drawings. This example illustrates the characteristics and advantages of the invention. It is however recalled that the invention is not limited to this example.

(8) In the figures, identical elements are marked by identical references. For reasons of legibility of the figures, the size scales between elements represented are not respected.

(9) A microelectronic device according to the invention, also called resistive random access memory, is represented in FIG. 2. This microelectronic device 20 comprises a plurality of resistive random access memory cells 10, indiscriminately called non-volatile memory cells or simply memory cells. This plurality of memory cells 10of the type of the memory cell represented in FIG. 1are laid out beside each other, on one or several stages. In the example of FIG. 2, the memory cells 10 are laid out according to a crossbar architecture, in which several upper electrodes 11 are laid out parallel to each other in a first plane and several lower electrodes 12 are laid out parallel to each other and perpendicularly to the upper electrodes 11, in a second plane parallel to the first plane. A layer of active material 13 is arranged at each intersection between a lower electrode and an upper electrode. Each stack constituted of a portion of lower electrode 12, a portion of upper electrode 11 and a layer of active material 13 forms a memristor 15. Each memristor 15 is associated with a selection device, not represented in FIG. 2, so as to form a memory cell such as that represented in FIG. 1.

(10) The lower 12 and upper 11 electrodes are metal electrodes, for example made of titanium (Ti) for the upper electrode 11 and titanium nitride (TiN) for the lower electrode 12. The upper 11 and lower 12 electrodes may obviously be made of other materials normally used in RRAM (Resistive Random Access Memory) cells such as tantalum (Ta) or tantalum nitride (TaN).

(11) The layer of active material 13 is a layer of originally insulating material such as hafnium oxide (HfO.sub.2). This layer may have a thickness, for example, of 10 nm. This active material, originally insulating, is capable of becoming conductive after a breakdown operation which will be described hereafter. Thus, under the effect of a voltage applied to the upper and lower electrodes, the layer of active material 13 becomes high resistance or low resistance, according to the level of voltage applied.

(12) In a particular example of application, the microelectronic device 20 comprises a plurality of resistive memory cells 10 laid out according to a crossbar architecture. In the example of FIG. 2, each memory cell of the microelectronic device is of dimensions 3 m by 3 m and comprises an active layer 13 made of hafnium oxide of 10 nm. Each memory cell 10 of the microelectronic device also comprises a selection device connected to the memristor 15 to control the level of current applied to said memristor. In certain embodiments, the selection device is a transistor of N6MOS body-contacted P+ type, comprising a gate width of 0.35 m and an active zone width of 100 m. The gate width is an important parameter in the choice of the selection transistor because it is this gate which determines the maximum currentcalled compilance currentallowed in the memory cell. Indeed, a sufficiently high current, for example a maximum current of 3 mA, must be able to traverse the gate of the transistor to enable reversible switching of the memory cell between the LRS state and the HRS state; this current must however be limited in order to prevent the creation of a permanent conductive filament in the layer of active material.

(13) To write, erase and/or rewrite in a resistive memory cell 10, said memory cell has to be formed, that is to say that the layer of active material 13 must have been broken down during a breakdown operation in order that said layer of active material can be at least partially conducting. This breakdown operation consists in initiating the creation of the conductive filament in the layer of active material 13 such that said active material is capable of switching from a low resistance state (LRS state) to a high resistance state (HRS state), or vice versa.

(14) This breakdown operation is carried out during the forming method according to the invention, schematically represented in FIG. 3. This forming method, referenced 100, comprises a step 110 of reading a memory cell. Indeed, during the phase of production of a microelectronic device such as that of FIG. 2, each memory cell of the microelectronic device is read to check that it is unformed or, conversely, formed. Thus, each memory cell is read at step 110 and a test of checking the formed or unformed state of said memory cell is carried out at step 120. If the memory cell is determined as unformed, then the method continues by a step 130 of laser shot. A first laser shot is conducted with a predetermined power flux density, for example 0.03 W/2. After this first laser shot, the memory cell is again read at step 110 to check if this laser shot has made it possible to break down the layer of active material 13 so as to form the memory cell. If at test 120, the memory cell is detected as still unformed, then a second laser shot (step 130) is carried out on the layer of active material 13, with a power flux density greater than the power flux density of the first laser shot. Steps 110-130 are thereby reiterated, with a laser shot power flux density that increases at each iteration, up to breakdown of the layer of active material 13. The increase in the power flux density between each shot may be carried out with a step, for example of 0.01 W/.sup.2 up to a value, for example, of 0.12 W/.sup.2. In other words, steps 110-130 are repeated until the memory cell is detected as formed at step 120.

(15) Each laser shot produces, on the memory cell, a rise in temperature which is behind the breakdown of the layer of active material. Indeed, the impact of a laser beam on a layer of oxide based active material generates a thermal effect (or rise in temperature) capable of creating the conductive filament in the layer of active material. The higher the power flux density of the laser beam, the more heat is released by the laser shot. The method of the invention proposes applying a predetermined base power flux density, for example 0.03 W/.sup.2, and to increase this power flux density step by step until the heat released by the laser shot causes breakdown.

(16) In the method of FIG. 3, when the memory cell is detected, at step 120, as being formed, then a post-forming cycle is conducted on the memory cell at step 140. This post-forming cycle 140 consists in making the memory cell switch from an HRS state to a LRS state, and vice versa, several times in a row (for example ten or so times), so as to place the memory cell in operating state. Examples of voltages applied during this post-forming cycle are represented in FIG. 4. Indeed, as a function of the voltage applied to the memory cell, the layer of active material 13 passes into a HRS state or into a LRS state. The table of FIG. 4 shows examples of voltages applied to the lower electrode 12, via the source of the selection transistor, to the upper electrode 11 via the drain of the transistor, to the gate of the transistor and to the substrate 14. According to this example, during reading of the memory cell 10, a voltage of 0V is applied to the substrate and to the lower electrode, a voltage of 3V is applied to the gate and a sweep voltage going up to 0.1V is applied to the upper electrode. During the phase of writing the memory cell, a voltage of 0V is applied to the substrate and to the lower electrode, a voltage of 1.1V is applied to the gate and a sweep voltage going up to 2V is applied to the upper electrode. During the phase of erasing the memory cell, a voltage of 0V is applied to the substrate and to the upper electrode, a voltage of 2.5V is applied to the gate and a sweep voltage going up to 2V is applied to the lower electrode.

(17) The operation of breakdown of the layer of active material 13 is implemented by means of a laser beam in which certain parameters are predefined as a function of the memory cell considered. One of these parameters is the power per unit area. This power per unit area, which determines the impact of the laser beam on the memory cell, is defined as a function of several criteria such as the dimensions of the memory cell and the active material used. This power per unit area may be, for example, a power comprised between 0.06 and 0.12 W/m.sup.2. The dimension of the spot of the laser beam, that is to say the dimension of the spot of the beam impacting the memory cell, is also a predefined parameter, notably as a function of the size of the memory cell and the type of active material chosen. The diameter of the laser spot is chosen, for example greater than three times the dimension of the memristor, so as to concentrate the major part of the power of the laser beam in the layer of active material encompassing the conductive filament. For example, in one embodiment where the memristor has a width and a length of 3 m each, the laser spot could be chosen with a diameter equal to or greater than 9 m. The pulse duration of the laser beam is an additional parameter, defined as a function of criteria such as the dimensions of the memory cell and the choice of materials. The pulse duration is determined in such a way as to maintain the integrity of the memory cell and not to damage materials situated around the layer of active material such as electrodes and connection materials. This pulse duration may be, for example, less than or equal to 1 s.

(18) The forming method of the invention may be implemented at several wavelengths. For example, the laser source can emit beams at a wavelength in the ultraviolet (wavelength comprised between around 100 and 400 nm) or in the infrared (wavelength comprised between around 800 and 1400 nm).

(19) In the embodiment where the memristor has a width and a length of 3 m each, the laser shots may, for example, be realised with a laser spot of 5050 m.sup.2, emitted with a laser source of Nd-Yag (yttrium-aluminium garnet doped with neodymium) type in which the pulse, for 10 ns, can reach a power flux density of 7.2 W/.sup.2, in a wavelength of 355 nm or 1064 nm.

(20) The breakdown of the layer of active material 13 may be obtained for a power flux density comprised between around 0.022 and 0.09 W/.sup.2. The value of the laser power necessary to break down the layer of active material, called breakdown threshold, is variable from one memory cell to another. Indeed, since a resistive random access memory cell is an analogue component, there exists, as for any analogue component, a certain variability of reaction. This variability is further accentuated as a function of the materials used to manufacture the memory cell. In the embodiment of the memristor described previously, the breakdown threshold of certain memory cells of the microelectronic device 20 may be 0.025 W/.sup.2 in the infrared (or 0.022 W/.sup.2 in the ultraviolet), that of other cells may be 0.06 W/.sup.2 in the infrared (or 0.047 W/.sup.2 in the ultraviolet) or instead 0.09 W/.sup.2 in the infrared (or 0.072 W/.sup.2 in the ultraviolet). This variability, substantially identical in the infrared and in the ultraviolet, is anticipated, in the method of the invention, by a step by step determination of the breakdown threshold, carried out by increasing the power flux density of the laser shot at each iteration of step 130 of the method of FIG. 3. The step by step determination of the breakdown threshold thus makes it possible to realise an optimal breakdown of each memory cell with the power flux density the most appropriate for said memory cell. The step by step determination of the breakdown threshold further makes it possible to not have to control the current during the breakdown operation. The operation of breakdown by laser shot may thus be implemented while the memory cell is not receiving voltage, that is to say that it is not supplied electrically.

(21) With optimal breakdown, the resistances values of the layers of active material obtained after breakdown are optimal, that is to say of the order of 200 in the LRS state and of the order of 10 k in the HRS state, as represented in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In particular, FIG. 5A shows that the average value of the resistances obtained with the breakdown according to the method of the invention, in the LRS state, is close to the average value of the resistances obtained with a conventional method of breakdown by application of a forming voltage. FIG. 5A thus shows that the method according to the invention makes it possible to obtain a resistive level of the memory cells similar to that obtained with a conventional forming method, without however risking damaging neighbouring components. FIG. 5A also shows that the values of the resistances obtained with the breakdown according to the method of the invention are more concentrated, and thus closer to each other, than the resistance values obtained with a conventional breakdown method.

(22) FIG. 5B shows that the average value of the resistances obtained with a breakdown realised by a laser emitting in the infrared spectrum, in the HRS state, is close to the average value of the resistances obtained with a breakdown realised by a laser emitting in the ultraviolet spectrum.

(23) Thus, the method according to the invention enables the forming of memory cells not supplied electrically and thus without risk of over-breakdown by application of a too high voltage. The method according to the invention thus enables optimal resistive random access memory cells to be obtained without necessitating any specific design, which enables forming at lower cost.

(24) Although described through a certain number of examples, alternatives and embodiments, the forming method according to the invention and the memory cell formed by said method includes various alternatives, modifications and improvements which will appear in an obvious manner to those skilled in the art, it being understood that these alternatives, modifications and improvements fall within the scope of the invention, as defined by the following claims.