IMPROVED THIN-FILM STRUCTURE FOR CHALCOGENIDE ELECTRICAL SWITCHING DEVICES AND PROCESS THEREFOR

摘要

Disclosed herein is a novel thin-film structure for solid state thin-film electrical switching device fabricated of chalcoge- nide material that overcomes a number of design weaknesses existing in the prior art. The novel structure of the instant invention employs a thin layer of insulating material (16) beneath the body of chalcogenide material (3) so as to carefully define the fila- ment location. Since the filament location has been fixed, switching, due to edge conduction pathways has been substantially eli- minated. At the same time, the use of a thin insulating layer precludes step coverage faults of the prior art. The requirement for the thin layer of insulator material to withstand the switching voltage is addressed through the use of a second thicker layer of in- sulator material (2) which is deposited only after the chalcogenide material (3) has been formed. This improved structure demon- strates the advantages of higher fabrication yields and more repeatable electrical switching characteristics.