An electronic switching element made of vitreous semiconductor materials is described. The switch changes from high to low conductivity or vice versa without changing its state of matter. A plurality of contact electrodes is disposed thereon, and no barrier layer is present. In order to switch from a low conductive to a high conductive state, a highly conductive channel is produced intermediate a control electrode and a base electrode by a control current flowing over the control electrode and t...

Thin film electrical structures, such as threshold switching devices and phase change memory cells, preferably utilizing electrically stable, relatively inert, conductive electrodes including a non-single-crystal deposited film of carbon material, are disclosed. The film of carbon material, which preferably is amorphous and substantially pure, is disposed adjacent to a layer of active material such as an amorphous semiconductor, and serves to prevent undesired degradation of the active material,...

A memory cell device, including a memory material switchable between electrical property states by the application of energy, has bottom and top electrode members and a dielectric material between the two. The bottom and top electrode members have outer, circumferentially-extending surfaces aligned with one another. A memory element, comprising the memory material, at least partially surrounds and electrically contacts the outer surfaces of the top and bottom electrode members to create a memory...

A phase change memory device with improve thermal isolation. The device includes an electrode stack, including a first and second electrode elements, generally planar in form, separated by and in mutual contact with a dielectric spacer element, wherein the electrode stack includes a side surface; a phase change element having a bottom surface in contact with the electrode stack side surface, including electrical contact with the first and second electrode elements; and dielectric fill material s...

A memory device utilizes a phase change material as the storage medium. The phase change material includes at least one of Ge, Sb, Te, Se, As, and S, as well as a nitride compound as a dopant. The memory device can be a solid-state memory cell with electrodes in electrical communication with the phase change medium, an optical phase change storage device in which data is read and written optically, or a storage device based on the principle of scanning probe microscopy.

This invention relates to a semi-conductor switching and memory device having a threshold or breakdown voltage which is relatively insensitive to environmental temperatures which range from approximately -35.degree. to 130.degree.C. and nuclear radiation after exposure to 1.3 .times. 10.sup.17 n/cm. In addition to the temperature insensitivity and radiation hardness characteristics of the present invention, the device exhibits a symmetrical positive and negative voltage limiting or voltage regul...

In a high electric field domain device composed of a plurality of circuit elements each provided with a high electric field domain-generating electrode and a high electric field domain-suppressing electrode, logic operations can be performed by preparatorily applying affirmative signals and their corresponding negative signals to the suppressing electrodes of the individual circuit elements and subsequently applying pulse-coded signals of affirmations and negations to the generating electrodes o...

A non-volatile memory element includes a lower electrode, an upper electrode, a recording layer arranged between the lower electrode and the upper electrode and containing a phase change material, and a bit line directly arranged on the upper electrode. The bit line is formed to be offset to the recording layer. With this arrangement, a contact area between the recording layer and the upper electrode and a contact area between the upper electrode and the bit line can be reduced without providing...

A microelectronic programmable structure suitable for storing information and array including the structure and methods of forming and programming the structure are disclosed. The programmable structure generally includes an ion conductor and a plurality of electrodes. Electrical properties of the structure may be altered by applying energy to the structure, and thus information may be stored using the structure.

A phase-change memory may have a tapered lower electrode coated with an insulator. The coated, tapered electrode acts as a mask for a self-aligned trench etch to electrically separate adjacent wordlines. In some embodiments, the tapered lower electrode may be formed over a plurality of doped regions, and isotropic etching may be used to taper the electrode as well as part of the underlying doped regions.