Abstract
We present a study of Ni silicide as the bottom electrode in HfO2-based resistive random-access memory cells. Various silicidation conditions were used for each device, yielding different Ni concentrations within the electrode. A higher concentration of Ni in the bottom electrode was found to cause a parasitic SET operation during certain RESET operation cycles, being attributed to field-assisted Ni cation migration creating a Ni filament. As such, the RESET is affected unless an appropriate RESET voltage is used. Bottom electrodes with lower concentrations of Ni were able to switch at ultralow currents (RESET current <1 nA) by using a low compliance current (<500 nA). The low current is attributed to the tunneling barrier formed by the native SiO2 at the Ni silicide/HfO2 interface.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Future Data Center Technologies Thematic Strategic Research Programme: NVM based on integration of PCRAM and RRAM cells with ultra scaled vertical Si nanowire devices (SERC Grant No. 1121720016).
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Chen, Z., Fang, Z., Wang, Y. et al. Impact of Ni Concentration on the Performance of Ni Silicide/HfO2/TiN Resistive RAM (RRAM) Cells. J. Electron. Mater. 43, 4193–4198 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3309-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3309-9