Characterization of electrical contacts for phase change memory cells

Advancements in integrated circuits demand an increasing requirement for\ud a faster, low-cost non-volatile memory with improved scaling potential. Phase\ud change memory is an important emerging memory technology qualifying these\ud requirements. With dimensional scaling, the contacts are scaled by F2, therefore\ud knowledge of the contact properties becomes even more important. This thesis\ud deals with the characterization of electrical contacts for phase change memory\ud cells. An electrical contact in this respect refers to the interfaces formed in the\ud memory cell, i.e. the metal electrode to phase change material (PCM) contacts\ud in the crystalline and in the amorphous state