Study on GeGaSbTe film for long data retention phase change memory application

•Ga0.6Ge2.8Sb2.6Te4 exhibits a better data retention maintaining for 10 years at ~ 135 °C.•The reversible phase change can be realized by a pulse of 100 ns.•Ga0.6Ge2.8Sb2.6Te4 based cell shows good endurance up to 1.05 × 105 cycles.

In this paper, Ga0.6Ge2.8Sb2.6Te4 film was investigated for long data retention phase change memory application. Compared with Ge2Sb2Te5, Ga0.6Ge2.8Sb2.6Te4 film has higher crystallization temperatures (~ 240 °C) and larger crystallization activation energy (~ 2.9 eV), which lead to a higher temperature (~ 135 °C) for ten year data retention. The reversible phase change can be realized by a 100-ns width electric pulse. Ga0.6Ge2.8Sb2.6Te4 based cell shows good endurance up to 1.05 × 105 SET–RESET cycles during endurance test.