Bipolar Resistive Switching Characteristics of HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2) Trilayer-Structure RRAM Devices on Pt and TiN-Coated Substrates Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition

The HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2) trilayer-structure resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices have been fabricated on Pt- and TiN-coated Si substrates with Pt top electrodes by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The effect of the bottom electrodes of Pt and TiN on the resistive switching properties of trilayer-structure units has been investigated. Both Pt/HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2)/Pt and Pt/HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2)/TiN exhibit typical bipolar resistive switching behavior. The dominant conduction mechanisms in low and high resistance states (LRS and HRS) of both memory cells are Ohmic behavior and space-charge-limited current, respectively. It is found that the bottom electrodes of Pt and TiN have great influence on the electroforming polarity preference, ratio of high and low resistance, and dispersion of the operating voltages of trilayer-structure memory cells. Compared to using symmetric Pt top/bottom electrodes, the RRAM cells using asymmetric Pt top/TiN bottom electrodes show smaller negative forming voltage of −3.7 V, relatively narrow distribution of the set/reset voltages and lower ratio of high and low resistances of 10(2). The electrode-dependent electroforming polarity can be interpreted by considering electrodes’ chemical activity with oxygen, the related reactions at anode, and the nonuniform distribution of oxygen vacancy concentration in trilayer-structure of HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2) on Pt- and TiN-coated Si. Moreover, for Pt/HfO(2)/TiO(2)/HfO(2)/TiN devices, the TiN electrode as oxygen reservoir plays an important role in reducing forming voltage and improving uniformity of resistive switching parameters.