Amorphous SiC resistive memory with embedded Cu nanoparticles

•Amorphous SiC with embedded Cu nanoparticles (a-SiC:Cu) was investigated as the insulator layers for Cu/a-SiC:Cu/Au resistive memory.•Forming voltage and SET voltage reduced with increased Cu%.•Large ON/OFF ratio up to 107 were observed for all Cu/a-SiC:Cu/Au resistive memories.•Endurance over repeated switching was improved with increased Cu%.

Amorphous SiC with embedded Cu nanoparticles (a-SiC:Cu) was investigated as the insulator layer of Cu/a-SiC:Cu/Au resistive memory. The effect of the Cu embedding on resistive switching characteristics was studied for 20 and 30 vol% Cu. Reduced forming and SET voltages and increased endurance was observed for devices with 30Cu%. At the same time, all key advantageous characteristics of amorphous SiC resistive memory such as ON/OFF ratio of 107 and the co-existence of bipolar and unipolar modes were maintained upon Cu embedding. All above suggests that Cu embedding could be considered as a promising method to improve the overall performance of Cu/a-SiC:Cu/Au resistive memories.

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