High-Performance Programmable Metallization Cell Memory With the Pyramid-Structured Electrode

Author

Yu-Chih Huang ; Wan-Lin Tsai ; Chia-Hsin Chou ; Chung-Yun Wan ; Ching Hsiao ; Huang-Chung Cheng

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

34

Issue

10

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1244

Lastpage

1246

Abstract

The pyramid structure fabricated with the potassium hydroxide (KOH) anisotropically etched (100) silicon substrate has been deposited with a copper film as the bottom electrode of the programmable metallization cell (PMC) memory to significantly improve the resistive switching characteristic. As compared with the conventional flat copper electrode, this pyramid-structured electrode exhibited the set/reset voltage as low as 1/0.6 V and superior endurance of 2400 cycles at the set/reset voltages of -5/+3 V for the voltages pulsewidth of 1 μs. The high performance of this PMC could be attributed to high local electrical fields at the tips of the pyramid structure, resulting in the formation of the narrower conductive filaments that facilitate the lower operation voltage and better endurance.

Keywords

copper; integrated circuit metallisation; low-power electronics; random-access storage; silicon; Cu; Si; bottom electrode; high performance programmable metallization cell memory; lower operation voltage; narrow conductive filaments; pyramid structured electrode; resistive switching; voltage -5 V; voltage 3 V; Electrodes; Electron devices; Metallization; Random access memory; Silicon; Switches; Voltage measurement; Potassium hydroxide (KOH) surface texturing; programmable metallization cell (PMC); pyramid structure; resistive random-access memory (RRAM or ReRAM);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2013.2275851

Filename

6578060