Effect of hydrogen/deuterium incorporation on electroforming voltage of SiOx resistive random access memory

The electroforming voltage (V-et) of silicon oxide resistive random access memories (RRAM) treated with post-deposition-anneal (PDA) and/or post-metal-anneal (PMA) in different gas ambients is compared. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) result shows significant incorporation of H/D atoms in SiOx after anneals in H-2/N-2 and D-2/N-2. V-ef is significantly reduced after anneal in H-2/N-2 or D-2/N-2, but D-2/N-2 anneal results in even lower V-ef, which could be due to more stable Si passivation in the Si-D/O+ pair as compared to the Si-H/O+ pair. On and off state currents are measured at 200 mV gate bias every 60s for a total time of 6000 s with results showing good data retention for both on and off states. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4765356]