Metal oxide memories based on thermochemical and valence change mechanisms
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ries based on thermochemical and valence change mechanisms J. Joshua Yang, Isao H. Inoue, Thomas Mikolajick and Cheol Seong Hwang MRS Bulletin / Volume 37 / Issue 02 / February 2012, pp 131 137 Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012 Published online by Cambridge University Press: February 2012 DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2011.356
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0883769411003563 How to cite this article: J. Joshua Yang, Isao H. Inoue, Thomas Mikolajick and Cheol Seong Hwang (2012). Metal oxide memories based on thermochemical and valence change mechanisms. MRS Bulletin,37, pp 131137 doi:10.1557/mrs.2011.356 Request Permissions : Click here
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Metal oxide memories based on thermochemical and valence change mechanisms J. Joshua Yang, Isao H. Inoue, Thomas Mikolajick, and Cheol Seong Hwang This article reviews recent progress in understanding the resistive switching (RS) behavior and improvements in device performance of RS metal oxide (MO) thin-film systems and devices. The diverse RS MO materials are classified according to their switching mechanisms and characteristics. For each category, some representative materials are selected, and their characteristics are discussed. In addition, other factors such as the device structure, which also plays a crucial role in determining the device properties, are discussed as well. When applied in a real circuit (e.g., in a crossbar structure), there are device features/characteristics that need to be considered, including the bias polarity for switching, the current-voltage relationship, reliability, and scaling issues. Since nonvolatile RS in many MO materials is primarily associated with localized conduction channels, understanding the nature and the dynamic change of the current path structure is crucial and therefore is reviewed at length here. Guidelines for the choice of materials and access devices and their fabrication methods will also be provided. Finally, this review concludes with the outlook and challenges of MO-based resistance change devices for semiconductor memories.
Introduction
Requirements of a memory cell
Nonvolatile memories in production today are mainly using charge storage as the memory mechanism. For niche applications, alternatives such as ferroelectric random access memory (RAM),1 magnetoresistive RAM,2 and phase change RAM3 are available in the market. However, all of these alternative memories have significantly larger memory cell sizes than in established memory technologies. In principle, it is recognized that using a resistance value that can be controlled by a voltage or current (resistive switching [RS]) is better suited than the traditional concept of storing charge from the viewpoint of cell size scalability.4,5 A large number of RS mechanisms are reported in the literature.6 This article focuses on both the unipolar (or non-polar) thermochemical and the bipolar valence change mechanisms as two promising RS effects in se
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