BMDO/ 02-214B Colossal magnetoresistive materials as a novel, high density approach to radiation hard, non-volatile, new generation memories

"This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project develops fundamental technology for high density, non-volatile resistive memory (NVM) based on two-terminal, resistive type devices where electric pulse induced resistive change (EPIR) determines thememory state. A class of colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) materials has demonstrated a consistent EPIR change.A key focus of this program is the development of a production worthy MOCVD technology to ensure consistent CMR films for device development.The CMR materials are expected to be radiation hard as the EPIR effect is believed to depend on ferromagnetic cluster arrangements of polarons and/or residual Jahn-Teller distortion in the films which are not expected to be greatly affected by high energyparticles.Phase I systematically investigates MOCVD deposition of the CMR Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (PCMO) based on a Design of Experiments approach. We will deposit in the most promising process regimes on silicon substrates using MOCVD techniques and characterize these filmsboth structurally and electrically.Success in Phase 1 will lead to a Phase II effort where we will build prototype memory cells. The test devices in Phase II will verify the CMR's level of radiation hardness. Products based on our technology are especially attractive for mobilecomputing/communication devices, a multi- billion-dollar market. Radiation hard, non-volatile memory, multi-valued memoryNVM memory chips"