Uniformity improvement of Al-doped HfO2 resistive switching memory devices using a novel diffusion approach

A diffusion doping approach is adopted to fabricate Al-doped HfO₂ resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices, using the new Hf/Al/Hf diffusion structure with a two-step furnace annealing process, to avoid the formation of AlOx interfacial layer between HfO₂ layer and electrodes. The uniformity of key switching parameters is improved significantly in the Al-doped HfO₂ devices. This performance improvement is attributed to the reduced formation energy of oxygen vacancy (V_O) induced by trivalent Al-doping effect and so the improved stability of V_O conductive filaments (CFs).