Nonvolatile nanotube diodes and nonvolatile nanotube blocks and systems using same and methods of making same

• US 7,782,650 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2007
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nantero Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nantero Incorporated
• Inventors: Ghenciu, Eliodor G., Bertin, Claude L., Ward, Jonathan W., Sivarajan, Ramesh, Brock, Darren K., Rueckes, Thomas, Huang, X. M. Henry, Meinhold, Mitchell, Konsek, Steven L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Dang T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sofocleous; Alexander
• Application Number:
  US11/835,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20080212361A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 365/151, 365/164, 365/243, 365/148, 977/943
• US Class Current: 365/148
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2213/19 Memory cell comprising at least a nanowire and only two terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/8221 Three dimensional integrated circuits stacked in different levels
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/0688 Integrated circuits having a three-dimensional layout
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1021 including diodes only
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1203 the substrate comprising an insulating body on a semiconductor body, e.g. SOI three-dimensional layout H01L27/0688
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/943 Information storage or retrieval using nanostructure

Abstract

Under one aspect, a memory array includes word lines; bit lines; memory cells; and a memory operation circuit. Each memory cell responds to electrical stimulus on a word line and on a bit line and includes: a two-terminal non-volatile nanotube switching device having first and second terminals, a semiconductor diode element, and a nanotube fabric article capable of multiple resistance states. The semiconductor diode and nanotube article are between and in electrical communication with the first and second terminals, which are coupled to the word line bit line respectively. The operation circuit selects cells by activating bit and/or word lines, detects a resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of a selected memory cell, and adjusts electrical stimulus applied to the cell to controllably induce a selected resistance state in the nanotube fabric article. The selected resistance state corresponds to an informational state of the memory cell.

Claims

1. A memory array comprising:

a plurality of word lines;

a plurality of bit lines;

a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell responsive to electrical stimulus on a word line and on a bit line, each memory cell including;

a two-terminal non-volatile nanotube switching device comprising a first and a second terminal, a semiconductor diode element, and a nanotube fabric article, the semiconductor diode and a nanotube article disposed between and in electrical communication with the first and second terminals,

wherein the nanotube fabric article is capable of a plurality of resistance states, and

wherein the first terminal is coupled to the word line and the second terminal is coupled to the bit line, the electrical stimulus applied to the first and second terminals capable of changing the resistance state of the nanotube fabric article; and

a memory operation circuit operably coupled to each bit line of the plurality of bit lines and each word line of the plurality of word lines,

said operation circuit capable of selecting each of the cells by activating at least one of the bit line and the word line coupled to that cell to apply a selected electrical stimulus to each of the corresponding first and second terminals,

said operation circuit further capable of detecting a resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of a selected memory cell and adjusting the electrical stimulus applied to each of the corresponding first and second terminals in response to the resistance state to controllably induce a selected resistance state in the nanotube fabric article;

wherein the selected resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of each memory cell corresponds to an informational state of said memory cell.

2. The memory array of claim 1, wherein each memory cell nonvolatily stores the corresponding information state in response to electrical stimulus applied to each of the corresponding first and second terminals.

3. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor diode element comprises a cathode and an anode, the anode in electrical communication with the second terminal and the cathode in electrical communication with the nanotube switching element.

4. The memory array of claim 3, wherein the cathode comprises a first semiconductor material and the anode comprises a second semiconductor material.

5. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor diode element comprises a cathode and an anode, the cathode in electrical communication with the first terminal and the anode in electrical communication with the nanotube switching element.

6. The memory array of claim 5, wherein the cathode comprises a first semiconductor material and the anode comprises a second semiconductor material.

7. The memory array of claim 5, wherein the cathode comprises a semiconductor material and the anode comprises a conductive material and forms a conductive contact to the nanotube fabric article.

8. The memory array of claim 1, further comprising a conductive contact interposed between the semiconductor diode element and the nanotube fabric article.

9. The memory array of claim 8, wherein the nanotube fabric article comprises a network of unaligned nanotubes capable of providing at least one electrically conductive pathway between the first conductive contact and one of the first and second terminals.

10. The memory array of claim 8, wherein the nanotube fabric article comprises a multilayered nanotube fabric.

11. The memory array of claim 10, wherein the multilayered nanotube article has a thickness that defines a spacing between the conductive contact and one of the first and second conductive terminals.

12. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the plurality of memory cells includes multiple pairs of stacked memory cells,

wherein a first memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with a first bit line and the word line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the first memory cell, and

wherein a second memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with the word line and a second bit line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the second memory cell.

13. The memory array of claim 12, wherein the resistance state of the nanotube article in the first memory cell is substantially unaffected by the resistance state of the nanotube article in the second memory cell and the resistance state of the nanotube article in the second memory cell is substantially unaffected by the resistance state of the nanotube article in the first memory cell.

14. The memory array of claim 12, wherein the resistance state of the nanotube article in the first memory cell is substantially unaffected by said operation circuit selecting the second memory cell and the resistance state of the nanotube article in the second memory cell is substantially unaffected by the resistance state by said operation circuit selecting the first memory cell.

15. The memory array of claim 12, wherein the resistance state of the nanotube article in the first memory cell is substantially unaffected by said operation circuit detecting a resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of the second memory cell and the resistance state of the nanotube article in the second memory cell is substantially unaffected by the resistance state by said operation circuit detecting a resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of the first memory cell.

16. The memory array of claim 12, wherein the resistance state of the nanotube article in the first memory cell is substantially unaffected by said operation circuit adjusting the electrical stimulus applied to each of the corresponding first and second terminals of the second memory cell and the resistance state of the nanotube article in the second memory cell is substantially unaffected by the resistance state by said operation circuit adjusting the electrical stimulus applied to each of the corresponding first and second terminals of the first memory cell.

17. The memory array of claim 1, further comprising an insulating region and a plurality of conductive interconnects wherein the insulating region is disposed over the memory operation circuit, the plurality of memory cells are disposed over the insulating region, and the plurality of conductive interconnects operably couple the memory operation circuit to the plurality of bit lines and plurality of word lines.

18. The memory array of claim 1, wherein adjusting the electrical stimulus comprises incrementally changing the voltage applied to each of the corresponding first and second terminals.

19. The memory array of claim 18, wherein incrementally changing the voltage includes applying voltage pulses.

20. The memory array of claim 19, wherein amplitudes of subsequent voltage pulses are incrementally increased by approximately 200 mV.

21. The memory array of claim 1, wherein adjusting the electrical stimulus comprises changing the current supplied to at least one of the corresponding first and second terminals.

22. The memory array of claim 1, further comprising substantially removing electrical stimulus from the corresponding bit line and word line after controllably inducing the selected resistance state in the nanotube fabric article to substantially preserve the selected resistance state of the nanotube fabric article.

23. The memory array of claim 1, wherein detecting the resistance state of the nanotube fabric article further comprises detecting a variation over time of electrical stimulus on a corresponding bit line.

24. The memory array of claim 1, wherein detecting the resistance state of the nanotube fabric article further comprises detecting a current flow though a corresponding bit line.

25. The memory array of claim 1, wherein in each two terminal nonvolatile nanotube switching device, current is capable of flowing from the second terminal to the first terminal and substantially prevented from flowing from the first terminal to the second terminal.

26. The memory array of claim 25, wherein current is capable of flowing from the second terminal to the first terminal when a threshold voltage is reached by applying electrical stimulus to each of the corresponding first and second terminals.

27. The memory array of claim 25, wherein the selected resistance state of the nanotube fabric article of each memory cell includes one of a relatively high resistance state corresponding to a first informational state of said memory cell and a relatively low resistance state corresponding to a second informational state of said memory cell.

28. The memory array of claim 27, wherein a third information state of each memory cell corresponds to a state in which current is capable of flowing from the second terminal to the first terminal and wherein a fourth information state of each memory cell corresponds to a state in which current is substantially prevented from flowing from the first terminal to the second terminal.

29. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the two-terminal non-volatile nanotube switching device is operable independently of the voltage polarity between the first and second terminals.

30. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the two-terminal non-volatile nanotube switching device is operable independently of the direction of current flow between the first and second terminals.

31. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the plurality of memory cells includes multiple pairs of stacked memory cells,

wherein a first memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with a first bit line and the word line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the first memory cell;

wherein an insulator material is disposed over the first memory cell; and

wherein a second memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with a second word line, the second word line disposed over the insulator material and wherein a second bit line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the second memory cell.

32. The memory array of claim 1, wherein the plurality of memory cells includes multiple pairs of stacked memory cells,

wherein a first memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with a first bit line and the word line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the first memory cell;

wherein an insulator material is disposed over the first memory cell;

wherein a second memory cell in each pair of stacked memory cells is disposed above and in electrical communication with a second bit line, the second bit line disposed over the insulator material and wherein a second word line is disposed above and in electrical communication with the second memory cell.