Ni-Containing Electrodes for Compact Integration of Resistive Random Access Memory With CMOS

Different ${\rm HfO}_{x}$ -based resistive random access memory stacks with Ni-containing electrodes, including NiSi and ${\rm Ni}({\rm Ge}_{1-x}{\rm Si}_{x})$ , which can be easily formed on the source/drain of a transistor, are systematically investigated in this letter. The involvement of Ni (or ${\rm NiO}_{x}$ formed) at the interface has been found very beneficial to good switching properties. Moreover, RESET current can be effectively reduced for silicide electrodes compared to the $n^{+}$ -Si case, attributed to the formation of a thicker interfacial layer involving ${\rm NiO}_{x}$ and/or ${\rm GeO}_{x}$ . In addition, a well-controlled interfacial layer is believed to be very helpful for the switching uniformity improvement. All these observations suggest the prospect of a compact 1T-1R integration scheme with Ni-containing electrodes.