Conduction Mechanism and Improved Endurance in HfO2-Based RRAM with Nitridation Treatment

• Published in: Nanoscale research letters Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 574 - 6
• Main Authors: Yuan, Fang-Yuan, Deng, Ning, Shih, Chih-Cheng, Tseng, Yi-Ting, Chang, Ting-Chang, Chang, Kuan-Chang, Wang, Ming-Hui, Chen, Wen-Chung, Zheng, Hao-Xuan, Wu, Huaqiang, Qian, He, Sze, Simon M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 26.10.2017; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Ammonia; Chemistry and Materials Science; Compliance; Conduction; Defects; Durability; Electrodes; Endurance; Hafnium oxide; HfO2-based RRAM; High resistance; Low resistance; Materials Science; Molecular Medicine; Nano Express; Nanochemistry; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Nitridation; Nitrogen; Nitrogen atoms; Random access memory; Small cell lung carcinoma; Space charge; Space charge limit current; Switching; Thin films; Urea; HfO; Endurance; Space charge limit current; based RRAM; Nitridation
• ISSN: 1931-7573; 1556-276X
• DOI: 10.1186/s11671-017-2330-3

A nitridation treatment technology with a urea/ammonia complex nitrogen source improved resistive switching property in HfO 2 -based resistive random access memory (RRAM). The nitridation treatment produced a high performance and reliable device which results in superior endurance (more than 10 9 cycles) and a self-compliance effect. Thus, the current conduction mechanism changed due to defect passivation by nitrogen atoms in the HfO 2 thin film. At a high resistance state (HRS), it transferred to Schottky emission from Poole-Frenkel in HfO 2 -based RRAM. At low resistance state (LRS), the current conduction mechanism was space charge limited current (SCLC) after the nitridation treatment, which suggests that the nitrogen atoms form Hf–N–Ox vacancy clusters (V o + ) which limit electron movement through the switching layer.