Elemental Germanium Phase-Change Memory

Abstract

Phase-change memory (PCM) is a mature technology for fast, scalable, non-volatile data storage, with applications spanning embedded memory, as well as in-memory and neuromorphic computing. PCM predominantly relies on chalcogenide alloys, with $\mathrm{Ge_2Sb_2Te_5}$ (GST) as the industry standard. Yet in these alloys, the individual Ge, Sb, and Te atoms redistribute upon cycling, causing stochastic operation and ultimately device failure. To address this issue, elemental antimony was proposed as a PCM material, but it exhibits a metastable amorphous state that prevents reliable data retention. Moreover, tellurium and antimony can contaminate complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) production lines or act as unintended dopants, restricting manufacturing of PCM to dedicated fabs. Here we introduce elemental germanium (Ge) as a CMOS-native phase-change material that overcomes these fundamental limitations. In a vertical PCM cell architecture, Ge enables sub-nanosecond crystallization (240 ps, 40 times faster than GST), non-volatile data storage with excellent thermal stability ($>$110 °C for 10 years vs. $\sim$87 °C for GST), and a resistance drift coefficient approximately 60% lower than in GST. These results establish pure Ge, a standard semiconductor, as an alternative to chalcogenide phase-change materials, achieving superior performance in key metrics and enabling phase-change memory to be fabricated in standard semiconductor facilities.