Intel Corporation
TECHNOLOGIES FOR CONTROLLING CURRENT THROUGH MEMORY CELLS

Abstract:

Techniques for controlling current through memory cells is disclosed. In the illustrative embodiment, a fine-grained current source and a coarse-grained current source can both be activated to perform an operation on a phase-change memory cell. The coarse-grained current source is briefly activated to charge up the capacitance of an electrical path through the memory cell and then turned off. The fine-grained current source applies a current pulse to perform the operation on the memory cell, such as a reset operation. By charging up the electrical path quickly with the coarse-grained current source, the fine-grained current source can quickly perform the operation on the memory cell, reducing the thermal disturbance caused by the operation on nearby memory cells.