Performance Degradation Due to Nonlocal Heating Effects in Resistive ReRAM Memory Arrays
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MRS Advances © 2019 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2019.265
Performance Degradation Due to Nonlocal Heating Effects in Resistive ReRAM Memory Arrays
M. Al-Mamun and M. Orlowski Bradley Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
ABSTRACT
Frequent switching of resistive memory cell may lead to a local accumulation of Joules heat in the device. Since the ReRAM cells are arranged in crossbar arrays with the two electrodes running perpendicular to each other, the heat generated in one device spreads via common electrode metal lines to the neighboring cells causing their performance degradation. Also cells that do not share any of the two electrodes (e.g. the diagonal array cells) with the hot device may also degrade provided the intermediate cells are set to an on-state establishing thus a continuous thermal conduction path between the heated and the probed device. It is found that the heat conduction along the active Cu electrode is more pronounced than that along the inert Pt electrode. Devices with Rh inert electrode performed better than those with Pt electrode due to better heat conductivity properties of Rh vs Pt. The heat dissipation is also found worse for a heated device with narrow and thin lines causing, however less degradation of more distant neighbor cells than for wide and thick metal lines. Finally, there is a trade-off between dissipating the heat quickly form the heated device to increase its maximum switching cycles and the heat exposure of the neighboring devices.
INTRODUCTION Conductive Bridge Random Access Memory (CBRAM) and Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) play an important role in improving computing system performance
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because of their excellent scaling potential, low power consumption, high switching speed, and good retention, and endurance properties [1]. A two-terminal resistive switch can transition between high resistive state (HRS) and low resistive state (LRS) abruptly by application of a suitable voltage to the two electrodes. Cu/TaOx/Pt ReRAM switches were fabricated in a crossbar array on a thermally oxidized Si wafer. These devices are typically set and reset by applying positive and negative voltages to the Cu electrode while the Pt inert electrode is grounded. A Cu conductive filament (CF) forms and ruptures during the SET and RESET operations, respectively. When a particular cell is switched on and off repeatedly a Joules heat is deposited in the device. Here, we show that the heat accumulated in one device and dissipated along the electrode metal lines causes performance degradation of the neighboring cells, not only for those cells that share one of the common electrode lines.
Figure 1. (a) Array of Cu and Pt lines with Cu/TaOx/Pt cells at the intersections. (b) typi
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