Stable resistive switching characteristics of ZrO2-based memory device with low-cost

The stabilization of the resistive switching characteristics at both room temperature (RT) and 85 °C of the ZrO2-based resistive random access memory were investigated for nonvolatile memory applications. In both conditions, the sandwiched aluminum top electrode/ZrO2 thin films with embedded copper layer/aluminum bottom electrode structure devices exhibited reproducible bipolar resistive switching behavior and reliable data retention (little degradation over 105 and 104 s at RT and 85 °C, respectively). For the fabricated device, both the bottom electrode and top electrode materials are fabricated from Al with reduced material cost. Furthermore, the ZrO2 and embedded Cu materials also show good compatibility with the current CMOS technology to further reduce cost. The conduction mechanism of the low resistance state (LRS) is dominated by ohmic conduction, whereas the high resistance state (HRS) conduction is dominated by space charge limited conduction (SCLC). Our study shows that the memory device with high uniformity and good stabilization at both RT and 85 °C is a promising candidate for low-cost nonvolatile memory device applications.