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

Fang-Yuan Yuan; Ning Deng; Chih-Cheng Shih; Yi-Ting Tseng; Ting-Chang Chang; Kuan-Chang Chang; Ming-Hui Wang; Wen-Chung Chen; Hao-Xuan Zheng; Huaqiang Wu; He Qian; Simon M Sze

doi:10.1186/s11671-017-2330-3

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

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2017 Oct 26;12(1):574. doi: 10.1186/s11671-017-2330-3.

Authors

Fang-Yuan Yuan¹, Ning Deng^{2

3}, Chih-Cheng Shih^{4

5}, Yi-Ting Tseng⁵, Ting-Chang Chang^{6

7}, Kuan-Chang Chang⁸, Ming-Hui Wang⁴, Wen-Chung Chen⁴, Hao-Xuan Zheng⁵, Huaqiang Wu^{1

9}, He Qian^{1

9}, Simon M Sze¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
² Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. ningdeng@tsinghua.edu.cn.
³ Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList), Beijing, 100084, China. ningdeng@tsinghua.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, 80424, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, 80424, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, 80424, Taiwan. tcchang3708@gmail.com.
⁷ Advanced Optoelectronics Technology Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan. tcchang3708@gmail.com.
⁸ School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Peking University, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
⁹ Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList), Beijing, 100084, China.
¹⁰ Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan.

Abstract

A nitridation treatment technology with a urea/ammonia complex nitrogen source improved resistive switching property in HfO₂-based resistive random access memory (RRAM). The nitridation treatment produced a high performance and reliable device which results in superior endurance (more than 10⁹ cycles) and a self-compliance effect. Thus, the current conduction mechanism changed due to defect passivation by nitrogen atoms in the HfO₂ thin film. At a high resistance state (HRS), it transferred to Schottky emission from Poole-Frenkel in HfO₂-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.

Keywords: Endurance; HfO2-based RRAM; Nitridation; Space charge limit current.