Reliability assessment on new reprogrammable non-volatile memory devices based on SiCr-O

The reliability of SiCr-O based reprogrammable non-volatile resistive memory devices is investigated. Superior data retention performances are confirmed with a lifetime of 10 k h at 245 °C. The activation energy is determined by experiments as 1.28 eV, projecting an intrinsic data retention lifetime of more than 100 years at 175 °C. An endurance life of a thousand program/erase cycles is achieved. The impact of dielectric in direct contact with the SiCr-O film, the layout of the device and the preconditioning step on endurance life are studied. Transmission electron microscopy cross-sections are made to understand the mechanism of the endurance failure. Electro-thermal simulations are performed to gain insight on the observed phenomena and to give directions for further improvements.