Symposium EE: Phase-Change Materials for Memory, Reconfigurable Electronics, and Cognitive Applications

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Phase-Change Materials for Memory, Reconfigurable Electronics, and Cognitive Applications

Phase-change materials such as GeTe and Ge2Sb2Te5 undergo dramatic changes of conductivity through a rapid phase change between polycrystalline and amorphous states. In most cases, these phase-change materials are chalcogenides; but other alloys such as GeSb also show fast switching and distinct electrical and optical property difference between the amorphous and crystalline phases. This phenomenon has already been exploited in rewriteable DVDs, and optical disk technologies with terabyte densities are on the horizon. With the commercial mass production of phase-change electrical memory being announced, the emphasis is quickly moving to electronic nonvolatile memory. Recent literature results suggest that the long-held dream of an energy-efficient nonvolatile memory that switches at DRAM-like speeds is rapidly becoming a reality. These materials are also candidates for a variety of reconfigurable applications in RF circuitry, antennae, analog circuits, and even as reconfigurable wiring harnesses. In addition, most recent developments expand the field of phase-change materials toward applications in neuromorphic devices. While phase-change materials are exploited technologically, there are still many fundamental questions to be answered.

This symposium, initiated at the 2006 MRS Spring Meeting, will bring together the technological and scientific communities to identify outstanding, fundamental problems, to present technological trends, and to share current scientific results and breakthroughs. The audience includes physicists, chemists, materials scientists, device physicists, and process engineers. This symposium will be a synergistic event, focusing on the inextricable linkage between outstanding technological problems and gaps in our understanding of the underlying physics of phase-change materials.

Session topics will include (but will not be limited to):

  • Physics and materials science of phase-change materials
  • Application of phase-change materials to solid-state memory technology (PCRAM) and to optical storage
  • Phase-change materials for reconfigurable logic applications
  • Biology-inspired/neuromorphic devices
  • Theory of phase-change materials
  • Computer simulations of structural and electronic processes in phase-change materials
  • Device integration and performance
  • Processing issues in device fabrication
  • Scalability of phase-change material applications
  • Low-power devices
  • Multibit (multilevel) storage
  • Concepts and enabling technologies for 3D memory
  • Integration of phase-change materials into hybrid nanostructures
  • Reduced dimensionality structures of phase-change materials
  • Topological insulating properties of phase-change materials

A joint session with Symposium DD: Emerging Materials and Devices for Future Nonvolatile Memories is being considered.

Also, a tutorial complementing this symposium is tentatively planned. Further information will be included in the MRS Program that will be available online in January.

Invited Speakers Include:

Marco Bernasconi (Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, Italy), Huai-Yu Cheng (IBM T. J. Watson Research Ctr.), Alessandro Giussani (Paul Drude Inst., Berlin, Germany), Lindsay Greer (Univ. of Cambridge, United Kingdom), Muneaki Hase (Tsukuba Univ., Japan), Robert Jones (Inst. für Festkörperforschung, FZ Jülich, Germany),Youn-Seon Kang (Samsung, Korea), Alexander Kolobov (AIST: National Inst. for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan), Massimo Longo (MDM, IMM-CNR, Italy), Shuichi Murakami (Tokyo Inst. of Technology, Japan), Andrea Redaelli (Micron, Italy), John Robertson (Univ. of Cambridge, United Kingdom), H.-S. Philip Wong (Stanford Univ.), David Wright (Univ. of Exeter, United Kingdom), Matthias Wuttig (RWTH Aachen Univ., Germany), Rong Zhao (Data Storage Inst., Singapore).

Symposium Organizers

Raffaella Calarco
Paul Drude Institute for Solid State Electronics
Hausvogteipl. 5-7, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
Tel 49-30-20377-351, Fax 49-30-20377-201
calarco@pdi-berlin.de

Paul Fons
Advanced Institute of Industrial Science and Technology
Nanodevice Innovation Center
Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba Central 4, Tsukuba 305-8562, Japan
Tel 81-298-61-5636, Fax 81-298-61-2939, paul-fons@aist.go.jp

Bart J. Kooi
M2i University of Groningen
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and Materials Innovation Institut
Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
Tel 31-50-363-4202/-4896, b.j.kooi@rug.nl

Martin Salinga
RWTH Aachen University
I. Physikalisches Institut IA
Sommerfeldstr. 14, D-52074 Aachen, Germany
Tel 49-241-80-27178, Fax 49-241-80-627178
martin.salinga@physik.rwth-aachen.de  

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