Nonvolatile memory technologies in Si-based electronics date back to the 1990s. Ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) was one of the most promising devices replacing the conventional Flash memory facing physical scaling limitations at those times. A variant of charge storage memory referred to as Flash memory is widely used in consumer electronic products such as cell phones and music players while NAND Flash-based solid-state disks (SSDs) are increasingly displacing hard disk drives as the primary storage device in laptops, desktops, and even data centers. The integration limit of Flash memories is approaching, and many new types of memory to replace conventional Flash memories have been proposed. Emerging memory technologies promise new memories to store more data at less cost than the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players. They are being investigated and lead to the future as potential alternatives to existing memories in future computing systems. Emerging nonvolatile memory technologies such as magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), spin-transfer torque random-access memory (STT-RAM), ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM), phase-change memory (PCM), and resistive random-access memory (RRAM) combine the speed of static random-access memory (SRAM), the density of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and the nonvolatility of Flash memory and so become very attractive as another possibility for future memory hierarchies. Many other new classes of emerging memory technologies such as transparent and plastic, three-dimensional (3-D), and quantum dot memory technologies have also gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Subsequently, not an exaggeration to say that computer memory could soon earn the ultimate commercial validation for commercial scale-up and production the cheap plastic knockoff. Therefore, this review is devoted to the rapidly developing new class of memory technologies and scaling of scientific procedures based on an investigation of recent progress in advanced Flash memory devices.

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Overview of emerging nonvolatile memory technologies

Resistive switching (RS) is an interesting property shown by some materials systems that, especially during the last decade, has gained a lot of interest for the fabrication of electronic devices, with electronic nonvolatile memories being those that have received the most attention. The presence and quality of the RS phenomenon in a materials system can be studied using different prototype cells, performing different experiments, displaying different figures of merit, and developing different computational analyses. Therefore, the real usefulness and impact of the findings presented in each study for the RS technology will be also different. This manuscript describes the most recommendable methodologies for the fabrication, characterization, and simulation of RS devices, as well as the proper methods to display the data obtained. The idea is to help the scientific community to evaluate the real usefulness and impact of an RS study for the development of RS technology. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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Recommended Methods to Study Resistive Switching Devices

The rapid development of information technology has led to urgent requirements for high efficiency and ultralow power consumption. In the past few decades, neuromorphic computing has drawn extensive attention due to its promising capability in processing massive data with extremely low power consumption. Here, we offer a comprehensive review on emerging artificial neuromorphic devices and their applications. In light of the inner physical processes, we classify the devices into nine major categories and discuss their respective strengths and weaknesses. We will show that anion/cation migration-based memristive devices, phase change, and spintronic synapses have been quite mature and possess excellent stability as a memory device, yet they still suffer from challenges in weight updating linearity and symmetry. Meanwhile, the recently developed electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors have demonstrated outstanding energy efficiency, linearity, and symmetry, but their stability and scalability still need to be optimized. Other emerging synaptic structures, such as ferroelectric, metal–insulator transition based, photonic, and purely electronic devices also have limitations in some aspects, therefore leading to the need for further developing high-performance synaptic devices. Additional efforts are also demanded to enhance the functionality of artificial neurons while maintaining a relatively low cost in area and power, and it will be of significance to explore the intrinsic neuronal stochasticity in computing and optimize their driving capability, etc. Finally, by looking into the correlations between the operation mechanisms, material systems, device structures, and performance, we provide clues to future material selections, device designs, and integrations for artificial synapses and neurons.

A comprehensive review on emerging artificial neuromorphic devices

Resistive switching (RS) phenomena are reversible changes in the metastable resistance state induced by external electric fields. After discovery ∼50 years ago, RS phenomena have attracted great attention due to their potential application in next-generation electrical devices. Considerable research has been performed to understand the physical mechanisms of RS and explore the feasibility and limits of such devices. There have also been several reviews on RS that attempt to explain the microscopic origins of how regions that were originally insulators can change into conductors. However, little attention has been paid to the most important factor in determining resistance: how conducting local regions are interconnected. Here, we provide an overview of the underlying physics behind connectivity changes in highly conductive regions under an electric field. We first classify RS phenomena according to their characteristic current–voltage curves: unipolar, bipolar, and threshold switchings. Second, we outline the microscopic origins of RS in oxides, focusing on the roles of oxygen vacancies: the effect of concentration, the mechanisms of channel formation and rupture, and the driving forces of oxygen vacancies. Third, we review RS studies from the perspective of statistical physics to understand connectivity change in RS phenomena. We discuss percolation model approaches and the theory for the scaling behaviors of numerous transport properties observed in RS. Fourth, we review various switching-type conversion phenomena in RS: bipolar-unipolar, memory-threshold, figure-of-eight, and counter-figure-of-eight conversions. Finally, we review several related technological issues, such as improvement in high resistance fluctuations, sneak-path problems, and multilevel switching problems.

Resistive switching phenomena: A review of statistical physics approaches

The influence of top electrode material on the resistive switching properties of ZrO2-based memory film using Pt as a bottom electrode was investigated in this letter. In comparison with Pt/ZrO2/Pt and Al/ZrO2/Pt devices, the Ti/ZrO2/Pt device exhibits different resistive switching current-voltage (I- V) curve, which can be traced and reproduced by a dc voltage more than 1000 times only showing a little decrease of resistance ratio between high and low resistance states. Furthermore, the broad dispersions of resistive switching characteristics in the Pt/ZrO2/Pt and Al/ZrO2/Pt devices are generally observed during successive resistive switching, but those dispersions are suppressed by the device using Ti as a top electrode. The reliability results, such as cycling endurance and continuous readout test, are also presented. The write-read-erase-read operations can be over 104 cycles without degradation. No data loss is found upon successive readout after performing various endurance cycles

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/10849/1/000246191700012.pdf

Effect of Top Electrode Material on Resistive Switching Properties of $\hbox{ZrO}_{2}$ Film Memory Devices

The Ti/ZrO2/Pt resistive memory devices with one transistor and one resistor (1T1R) architecture are successfully fabricated in this letter. The tested devices show low operation current (20 μA), low switching voltage (set/reset, 0.8/-1 V), and reliable data retention for low-resistance state (LRS) with a 20-μA set current at 80°C (over ten years) via an excellent current limiter, namely, a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). In addition, multilevel storage characteristics are also demonstrated by modulating the amplitude of the MOSFET gate voltage. The various LRS levels obtained are possibly attributed to the formation of different numbers and sizes of conducting filaments consisting of oxygen vacancies caused by an external electric field. Moreover, reproducible resistive switching characteristics up to 2000 switching cycles are achieved in the same device. Our 1T1R ZrO2-based resistive switching access memory with low-power and highly reliable multilevel operation has high potential for practical applications.

Low-Power and Highly Reliable Multilevel Operation in $ \hbox{ZrO}_{2}$ 1T1R RRAM

The resistive switching behaviors of sputtered V-doped SrZrO3 (V:SZO) memory films were investigated in this letter. The current states of the memory films were switched between high current state (H-state) and low current state (L-state). The resistance ratio of the two current states was over 1000 at a read voltage. The switching mechanism from L- to H-state corresponds to the formation of current paths. However, this mechanism from Hto L-state is thought to be due to the fact that the defects present in the V:SZO film randomly trap electrons, and hence, the current paths are ruptured. The conduction mechanism of the H-state is dominated by ohmic conduction, whereas the L-state conduction is dominated by Frenkel-Poole emission. The polarity direction of the resistive switching is an intrinsic property of the SrZrO3 oxides. The V:SZO films with high uniformity and good stability are expected to be used in nonvolatile memory

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/11849/1/000240008800006.pdf

Resistive Switching Mechanisms ofV-Doped $hboxSrZrO_3$ Memory Films

In this paper, nonpolar resistive switching behavior is reported for the first time in a SZO-based memory device. The electrode materials used which have different conductivities affect the resistive switching properties of the device. The Al/V:SZO-LNO/Pt device shows nonpolar switching behavior, whereas the Al/V:SZO/LNO device has bipolar switching property. The resistance ratios of these two devices are quite distinct owing to the difference between the resistance of low resistance states. The Al/V:SZO-LNO/Pt device with lower resistive switching voltages (mnplus7 V turn on and mnplus2 V turn off) and higher resistance ratio is more suitable for practical applications compared to the Al/V:SZO/LNO device. The switching speed of the Al/V:SZO-LNO/Pt device is 10 ns, which is the fastest speed that has ever been reported. The conduction mechanisms, nondestructive readout property, retention time, and endurance of this device are also reported in this paper.

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/10038/1/000251268300002.pdf

Voltage-Polarity-Independent and High-Speed Resistive Switching Properties of V-Doped $\hbox{SrZrO}_{3}$ Thin Films

The effects of vanadium doping on resistive switching (RS) characteristics and mechanisms of RF-sputtered SrZrO3 (SZO)-based thin films are investigated in this paper. The physical and electrical properties of SZO-based thin films are modulated by vanadium doping due to the Zr4+ ion replaced by V5+, further affecting the RS parameters of SZO-based thin films. The conduction mechanisms of SZO-based thin films are dominated by ohmic conduction (hoping conduction) and Frenkel-Poole emission for the low resistance state (LRS) and the high resistance state (HRS), respectively. The turn-on process might be attributed to the formation of conducting filaments consisting of oxygen vacancies with the effective barrier height (φB,eff) in the range of 0.10-0.13 eV, whereas the turn-off process might result from thermally assisted oxidation of oxygen vacancies by the Joule heating effect. Furthermore, the introduction of the high valence cation (V5+) in a Zr4+ site of SZO crystalline structure can suppress the formation of oxygen vacancies due to the charge neutrality restriction. Such suppression leads to the changes in the forming voltage, turn-on voltage, HRS resistance, dielectric constant, and φB,eff with vanadium doping concentration up to 0.2 mol%, which is within the solid solubility limit based on our measured lattice constants and Vegard's law.

Effects of Vanadium Doping on Resistive Switching Characteristics and Mechanisms of $\hbox{SrZrO}_{3}$ -Based Memory Films

The stabilization of the resistive switching properties is necessary to realize the memory application of the SrZrO3(SZO)-based resistive switching devices. During continuous resistive switching cycle, broad variations of the resistive switching parameters of the SZO-based memory devices can be improved by a thin embedded Cr layer. The Cr metal layer is proposed to diffuse into and dope the SZO thin film to produce the space charge region, further reducing the effective resistive switching region. Hence, the good stabilization of the resistive switching properties can be obtained in the SZO films with embedded Cr layer.

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/8304/1/000259812900008.pdf

Chen-Hsi Lin

Papers

Low-Power and Highly Reliable Multilevel Operation in $ \hbox{ZrO}_{2}$ 1T1R RRAM

Resistive Switching Mechanisms ofV-Doped $hboxSrZrO_3$ Memory Films

Voltage-Polarity-Independent and High-Speed Resistive Switching Properties of V-Doped $\hbox{SrZrO}_{3}$ Thin Films

Effects of Vanadium Doping on Resistive Switching Characteristics and Mechanisms of $\hbox{SrZrO}_{3}$ -Based Memory Films

Improvement of Resistive Switching Characteristics in $\hbox{SrZrO}_{3}$ Thin Films With Embedded Cr Layer