A forming-free ReRAM cell with low operating voltage

The unwanted electro-forming process is unavoidable for the practical application of most resistive random access memory (ReRAM) devices, which is always being one of the obstacles for the massive commercialization of this novel electronic device. In this letter, a forming-free Pt/Ti/(TiO2-x)/Ta2O5/Pt based ReRAM device is demonstrated with an additional feature of the lowoperation voltage. The fitting result of the measured I-V curves reveals that resistive switching of the fabricated device is conducted by the electrons trapping/de-trapping process in deep-level electron traps of the TiO2-x layer, which is formed through the spontaneous oxygen grabbing reaction in the interface of Ti and Ta2O5 during the film deposition. The plentiful oxygen vacancy defects and the thin resistive switching zone (TiO2-x) ensure the forming-free and low operating voltage characteristics. Using oxygen grabbing to pre-produce abundant electron trapping centers for the resistive switching provides a simple way for the fabrication of the forming-free ReRAM device with low operating voltage, aiming to the high-density and low-power memory applications.