Importance

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Abstract

This disclosure relates to a thin film amorphous memory cell which can be fabricated upon the surface of a semiconductor substrate in such a manner as to minimize the surface area requirements for each cell thereby increase the packing density of the memory array. Furthermore, since the cell can be fabricated on top of the semiconductor substrate, other active devices can be fabricated in the substrate so as to further increase the packing density of the integrated circuit chip containing memory array or other circuits. The memory cell is formed of a thin film diode of one or more amorphous semiconductor layers that are doped to form either a PN junction diode or, with one such layer, a Schottky diode, and the memory cell includes an amorphous layer of a tellurium based chalcogenide material that may be employed in either a memory mode or a threshold mode so that the memory cell may be operated in either a non-volatile or volatile manner.

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First Claim