Stable Bipolar Resistive Switching Characteristics and Resistive Switching Mechanisms Observed in Aluminum Nitride-based ReRAM Devices

Abstract

The authors report upon the ultrafast bipolar switching characteristics observed in aluminum nitride (AlN)-based resistive random access memory devices ReRAMs. The set and reset states were measured to be as low as 2 μA and 5 nA, respectively, at <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">read</sub> = 0.1 V. Regarding pulse operations, very fast switching characteristics were achieved at 3 V/10 ns for the set operation and -3 V/10 ns for the reset operation. In addition, the AlN-based ReRAMs showed an endurance value of over ~ 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> cycles and a retention time of over ten years at 85°C. These results show that this AlN-based ReRAM can be used as a promising high-speed nonvolatile memory device.