Figure 2a shows TEM image of a typical via-hole size of 0.4 × 0.4 µm2. The length of via-hole is found to be approximately 0.5 µm. A thickness of Cr layer is approximately 150 nm. High-resolution TEM image on inside via-hole region confirms the layer-by-layer of Cr/CrO
x
/TiO
x
/TiN structure (Fig. 2b). The thickness of amorphous TiO
x
layer is approximately 3 nm, which acts as a switching layer. This TiO
x
layer is grown during the Cr TE deposition owing to lower Gibbs free energy of TiO2 (−887.6 kJ (mol)−1 at 300 K). In addition, reactive Cr TE is also partially oxidized at the Cr/TiO
x
interface and creates CrO
x
owing to lower Gibbs free energy of Cr2O3 of −694.88 kJ (mol)−1 [20, 21]. This CrO
x
layer with a thickness of approximately 4 nm is polycrystalline. Elemental analysis of Cr/CrO
x
/TiO
x
/TiN structure has been explored by EDX spectrum. The existence of Cr, Ti, O, N elements in corresponding layers of 1, 2, 3 are shown in Fig. 2c. The peaks’ position of Cr, Ti, O, N elements are found to be 5.4, 4.5, 0.4, and 0.28 keV, respectively. Due to both lower Gibbs free energy and deposition by sputtering, the defective CrO
x
layer is formed or oxygen vacancy is observed in the CrO
x
layer. Therefore, this CrO
x
layer acted as an oxygen vacancy supply layer to form conductive filament into the TiO
x
switching layer and good switching characteristics can be observed below.
Figure 3a exhibits the current–voltage (I–V) switching characteristics of a 0.4-µm device at a CC of 300 µA. Voltage sweeping direction is shown by arrows 1–4. The device requires a very small forming voltage (V
form) of 0.9 V because of both thin TiO
x
switching layer and vacancy supply from the CrO
x
layer. Small SET (V
SET) and RESET voltages (V
RESET) are found to be 0.6 and −0.6 V, respectively. The RESET currents are found to be 314 and 391 µA for first and second cycle, respectively.
Cumulative probability of RESET currents for the first and second cycles is shown in Fig. 3b. At a 50 % probability, the RESET currents are found to be 329 and 344 µA for 1st and 2nd cycles, respectively. The RESET current is slightly higher (~15 %) than current compliance owing to small current overshoot effect, which can be reduced by optimizing operation current. Further study is needed to evaluate this effect. This current overshoot effect is happening during formation or SET of the devices. Therefore, this structure provides good current clamping and minimizes current overshoot effects, even a one-resistor (1R) configuration.
Cumulative probability of initial resistance state (IRS), high resistance state (HRS), and low resistance state (LRS) for three different device sizes of 0.4, 1, and 8 µm is shown in Fig. 3c. The average values of IRS are 457.5, 46.5, and 670 Ω for the 0.4-, 1-, and 8-µm devices, respectively. The leakage currents increase with increasing device sizes, which are owing to the presence of much higher amount of defects or oxygen vacancies (V
o) in larger device sizes. The average values of HRS/LRS are 144/2.7, 1.5/1.2 kΩ, and 188/175 Ω for 0.4, 1, and 8 µm, respectively at a read voltage (V
read) of 0.2 V. This implies that large size devices (1 and 8 µm) do not show the bipolar resistive switching at a low CC of 300 µA. By reducing the device size as well as leakage current, good resistive switching characteristics could be observed even a simple structure has been designed and fabricated here. In addition, it is
found that a non-zero current of approximately 2 × 10−7 A is observed at initial and high resistance state, which might possibly be due to capacitive effect. However, a further study is needed.
Figure 4a shows weibull distribution of IRS, HRS ,and LRS for the 0.4-µm devices. These narrow dispersion values interpret that device-to-device uniformity is good with a yield (i.e., switchable devices with consecutive 2 cycles and resistance ratio is >2) of 85 %. We can justify successive switching devices or reliability test as follows by weibull distribution plot [22]. Mathematically, this can be expressed as
$$ W\left( Q \right) = \ln \left[ { - \ln \left( {1 - F} \right)} \right], $$
(1)
$$ F\left( Q \right) = 1 - \exp \left[ { - \left( {\frac{Q}{{\alpha_{63\% } }}} \right)^{\beta } } \right], $$
(2)
where F(Q) is the cumulative distribution function of failure, Q is the values of measured data, β is the slope value of weibull distribution curve or shape factor which signifies the statistical dispersion of data, and α
63 % is the scale factor value from weibull distribution at approximately F = 63 %. Higher β value means that distribution is more uniform. The uniform distribution means that the fitting line should be perpendicular on X-axis. Using Eq. (1), weibull distribution patterns of IRS, HRS, LRS, V
form, V
SET, and V
RESET for the 0.4-µm devices have been depicted in Fig. 4. Using Eq. (2), the values of β are found to be from the fitting curves, as shown by straight line. The β value of LRS (2.5) distribution is narrower than those of both HRS (1.84) and IRS (1.1), as listed values in Table 1. In addition, IRS distribution of the 0.4-µm devices is narrowest as compared to widely scattered β values for 1-µm (0.46) and 8-µm (0.96) devices (not shown here), which may also related to the higher leakage.
Table 1 Values of β and α
63 % for the Cr/CrO
x
/TiO
x
/TiN with a device size of 0.4 µm
It is found that the average values of V
form, V
SET, V
RESET for the 0.4-µm devices are 0.9, 0.7, and −0.54 V, respectively. As compared to the V
SET, a small V
form of 0.9 V is necessary to switch a pristine device or it is like a forming-free device, which is very useful for integrated circuit (IC) application and saving extra device process step as well as low cost. The formation step can be avoided by reducing voltage of <3 V then the device will be used directly after fabrication. A 3 V battery can be used directly to program/erase this memory device or extra voltage amplifier which is used in Flash memory is not needed. The β values of V
form, V
SET, and V
RESET are 10.4, 7.34, and 3.9 (Fig. 4b–d), which suggests that formation of the devices is more uniform than those of the SET and RESET voltages. The values of standard deviation of V
form, V
SET, and V
RESET are 0.174, 0.189, and 0.139, respectively, which assert good device-to-device uniformity yield.
The values of scale factor (α
63 %) for the HRS and LRS are found to be 139.5 and 6 kΩ, respectively. A resistance ratio of approximately 20 is obtained. For a single bit operation, a resistance ratio of >2 is enough to indentify ‘0’ and ‘1’ states [1, 3, 23]. The higher resistance ratio is better for MLC operation. Therefore, scientists are as
large as resistance ratio with maintaining other memory parameters, which is also good for future application. The values of α
63 % for the V
form, V
SET, and V
RESET are found to be 0.97, 0.66, and −0.64 V, respectively. This suggests that the device could be operated at low voltage of ±1 V.
To evaluate the current conduction mechanism, LRS shows ohmic and HRS shows the space-charge-limited current conduction (SCLC). Stochastic filament
formation in TiO
x
layer by oxygen vacancy will lead to respond to the ohmic nature of LRS. On the other hand, injected electrons through the electrodes are exceeded than those thermally generated free electrons in the TiO
x
layer. Therefore, oxygen vacancy filament formation/rupture into the TiO
x
layer under external bias is the switching mechanism, which is also reported by other research groups in different structures [14, 19, 24]. In the Cr/CrO
x
/TiO
x
/TiN structure, when positive bias is applied on the Cr TE then the potential is distributed in series of TiO
x
and CrO
x
layers. It is true that TiO
x
layer has more insulating property than the CrO
x
layer. Therefore, the potential drop on a pristine device is higher across the TiO
x
layer. Then, Ti–O bonds start to break and electrical conductivity of the TiO
x
layer is increased. In this situation, the potential drop (V > V
form > V
SET) across CrO
x
layer is increased, which results in the oxygen vacancies as a positive charge in the CrO
x
layer moving towards TiO
x
layer as well as the V
o filament is formed into the TiO
x
layer (Fig. 5a). The device switches from IRS (or HRS) to LRS. By applying negative bias (V < V
RESET) on the Cr TE, the oxygen vacancies attracted toward the TE and stored into the CrO
x
layer, which results that the filament is broken (Fig. 5b). Then, the device switches back from LRS to previous HRS. However, there is difference in between IRS and HRS because of Ti–O bonds break during the formation of filament initially. Due to these CrO
x
/TiO
x
bilayers’ action, repeatable bipolar resistive switching cycles are observed.
To explore the performance potentiality of the Cr/CrO
x
/TiO
x
/TiN RRAM devices, program/erase (P/E) endurance and data retention characteristics have been evaluated (Fig. 6). The memory device shows long read pulse endurance measured at V
read of 0.2 V (Fig. 6a). The device is programed with difference CCs of 300 and 500 µA. After programing the data are read with a pulse width of 500 µs. The LRS values for CCs of 300 and 500 µA are 5 and 3 kΩ, respectively. The value of LRS decreases with increasing current compliance, which can be used as a multi-level cell. After erasing the data are read with a pulse width of 500 µs. The long read pulse endurance of >105 cycles is obtained. Good data retention of 6 h with a good memory window (HRS/LRS) of approximately 40 can be achieved from this RRAM device (Fig. 6b). This memory device shows good P/E endurance of >500 cycles at V
read of 0.2 V (Fig. 6c). A P/E pulse width of 1/1 µs and voltage of 3/−2 V are applied. A small fluctuation of LRS in both data retention and P/E endurance was observed, which can be assumed to be the generation and redistribution of oxygen vacancies in the TiO
x
switching layer owing to rapid increasing pulse operation. Shen et al. [25] have also discussed about the P/E endurance failure in Pt/BST/SRO RRAM structure due to generation and redistribution of defects in switching material. Further improvement is needed for P/E cycles. Eventually, this memory device with reducing size has very keen potential for future nanoscale non-volatile memory application.