Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition for Resistive Random-Access Memory Devices

Il-Kwon Oh; Asir Intisar Khan; Shengjun Qin; Yujin Lee; H-S Philip Wong; Eric Pop; Stacey F Bent

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c05822

Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition for Resistive Random-Access Memory Devices

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Sep 13;15(36):43087-43093. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c05822. Epub 2023 Sep 1.

Authors

Il-Kwon Oh^{1

2

3}, Asir Intisar Khan⁴, Shengjun Qin⁴, Yujin Lee¹, H-S Philip Wong⁴, Eric Pop⁴, Stacey F Bent¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, South Korea.
³ Department of Intelligence Semiconductor Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States.

PMID: 37656599
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c05822

Abstract

Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is a promising technology for data storage and neuromorphic computing; however, cycle-to-cycle and device-to-device variability limits its widespread adoption and high-volume manufacturability. Improving the structural accuracy of RRAM devices during fabrication can reduce these variabilities by minimizing the filamentary randomness within a device. Here, we studied area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) of the HfO₂ dielectric for the fabrication of RRAM devices with higher reliability and accuracy. Without requiring photolithography, first we demonstrated ALD of HfO₂ patterns uniformly and selectively on Pt bottom electrodes for RRAM but not on the underlying SiO₂/Si substrate. RRAM devices fabricated using AS-ALD showed significantly narrower operating voltage range (2.6 × improvement) and resistance states than control devices without AS-ALD, improving the overall reliability of RRAM. Irrespective of device size (1 × 1, 2 × 2, and 5 × 5 μm²), we observed similar improvement, which is an inherent outcome of the AS-ALD technique. Our demonstration of AS-ALD for improved RRAM devices could further encourage the adoption of such techniques for other data storage technologies, including phase-change, magnetic, and ferroelectric RAM.

Keywords: area-selective atomic layer deposition; data storage device; dielectrics; filament confinement; resistive random-access memory.