Enhancement of endurance for CuxO based RRAM cell

For the first time, we report that the copper oxide (Cu_xO) based resistive random access memory (RRAM) cell can achieve 10⁴ cycles (i.e. ~10x better) as a new record as well as elimination of the initial ¿forming¿ than reported in literature. The copper oxide is integrated in MIM (metal-insulator-metal) structure and is grown by plasma oxidation of Cu substrate, with CuO near upper surface and graded Cu_xO (i.e. increasingly Cu rich or O-vacancies rich) toward the Cu substrate. A thinner CuO upper layer can eliminate ¿forming¿ process and, for in turn, greatly enhance the endurance of resistive switching by eliminating the damage during the ¿forming¿ process.