Heavy Ion Radiation Effects on Hafnium Oxide-Based Resistive Random Access Memory

Abstract

Hafnium oxide-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) (TiN/HfO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2-x</sub> /Pt/Au) stacks were irradiated with 1.1-GeV Au ions with fluences between 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10</sup> and 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">12</sup> ions/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and evaluated regarding pristine resistance, forming voltage, and data retention. Only for the highest fluence, the resistance of the pristine state and, in turn, the conducting filament electroforming, as well as the reset voltage, increased. Even for fluences as high as 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">12</sup> ions/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , only a negligible percentage of the tested devices shows event upsets indicating extremely high data retention of hafnium oxide-based RRAM toward high-energy ionizing radiation.