Al doped Sb2Te3 material was proposed to improve the performance of phase-change memory. Crystallization temperature, activation energy, and electrical resistance of the Al doped Sb2Te3 films increase markedly with the increasing of Al concentration. The additional Al-Sb and Al-Te bonds enhance the amorphous thermal stability of the material. Al0.69Sb2Te3 material has a better data retention (10 years at 110 degrees C) than that of Ge2Sb2Te5 material (10 years at 87 degrees C). With a 100 ns width voltage pulse, SET and RESET voltages of 1.3 and 3.3 V are achieved for the Al0.69Sb2Te3 based device. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.