Impact of compliance current overshoot on high resistance state, memory performance, and device yield of HfO<inf>x</inf> based resistive memory and its solution

Abstract

The evidence of degraded R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">HIGH</sub> or permanent damage of the device induced by the current overshoot in the forming/SET step is demonstrated and a possible scenario for this result is revealed. Dependence of the overshooting current on the cathodic electrode and device configuration are discussed. Reduction of the overshooting current by a transistor can enhance the memory performances. The devices with high Rιιιgii (>; 1 MOhm) and endurance (>; 100M cycles) are achieved. With an exterior resistor, the HfOχ/TaN device shows a robust repetitive switching.