Electroforming of MIM thin-film devices in air at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Contrary to previous observations, it has been found that certain fluorides will undergo an electroforming process at low voltage, in air at atmospheric pressure, when sandwiched between particular metal electrodes. CaF2, LiF and LaF3 exhibit forming behaviour with copper or silver electrodes, but only CaF2 could be formed using gold. It was further observed that the conductivity of formed devices could be altered by simply varying the background pressure of the gaseous environment.