Faradaic currents during electroforming of resistively switching Ag-Ge-Se type electrochemical metallization memory cells

Resistive switching due to electrochemical filament formation and dissolution is observed in a variety of materials. Mostly, an electroforming process is required to modify the active material and form a first filament. In this study, the forming process and low current resistive switching in Ag/Ag-Ge-Se/Pt memory cells was investigated. In contrast to most other resistively switching memory devices, the first current-voltage cycle was needed to reduce the metal content in the chalcogenide layer. Temperature dependent and sweep-rate dependent measurements of the faradaic current were performed, and the metal content in the Ag-Ge-Se thin film was estimated. After forming, resistive switching with a write current of only 1 nA was observed demonstrating the feasibility of the fabrication of memory cells with ultra low power consumption.