Impact of the Ohmic Electrode on the Endurance of Oxide-Based Resistive Switching Memory

As one of the key aspects in the reliability of redox-based resistive switching memories (ReRAMs), maximizing their endurance is of high relevance for industrial applications. The major limitation regarding endurance is considered the excessive generation of oxygen vacancies during cycling, which eventually leads to irreversible RESET failures. Thus, the endurance could be increased by using combinations of switching oxide and ohmic electrode (OE) metal that provides a high barrier for the generation of oxygen vacancies [defect formation energy (DFE)]. In this work, we present a sophisticated programming algorithm that aims to maximize the endurance within reasonable measurement time. Using this algorithm, we compare ReRAM devices with four different OE metals and confirm the theoretically predicted trend. Thus, our work provides valuable information for device engineering toward higher endurance.

Automated summary

The research focuses on maximizing the endurance of ReRAMs by using specific combinations of switching oxide and ohmic electrode metals. A sophisticated programming algorithm is proposed to achieve this goal, and comparisons of ReRAM devices with different OE metals confirm the theoretically predicted trend, providing valuable information for device engineering towards higher endurance.