Structurally Engineered Nanoporous Ta2O5-x Selector-Less Memristor for High Uniformity and Low Power Consumption

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Oct 4;9(39):34015-34023. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b06918. Epub 2017 Sep 19.

Abstract

A memristor architecture based on metal-oxide materials would have great promise in achieving exceptional energy efficiency and higher scalability in next-generation electronic memory systems. Here, we propose a facile method for fabricating selector-less memristor arrays using an engineered nanoporous Ta2O5-x architecture. The device was fabricated in the form of crossbar arrays, and it functions as a switchable rectifier with a self-embedded nonlinear switching behavior and ultralow power consumption (∼2.7 × 10-6 W), which results in effective suppression of crosstalk interference. In addition, we determined that the essential switching elements, such as the programming power, the sneak current, the nonlinearity value, and the device-to-device uniformity, could be enhanced by in-depth structural engineering of the pores in the Ta2O5-x layer. Our results, on the basis of the structural engineering of metal-oxide materials, could provide an attractive approach for fabricating simple and cost-efficient memristor arrays with acceptable device uniformity and low power consumption without the need for additional addressing selectors.

Keywords: memristor; metal-oxide; nonlinear switching; tantalum oxide; ultralow power consumption.