A Novel Approach to Analyze the Resistance of the RRAM Based on the Conductive Nano Filament Length and Width Variation

• Published in: Transactions on electrical and electronic materials Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 476 - 482
• Main Authors: Vijay, H. M., Ramakrishnan, V. N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers (KIEEME) 01-10-2022
• Subjects: Chemistry and Materials Science; Electronics and Microelectronics; Instrumentation; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Regular Paper; Low resistance state; High resistance state; RRAM; Conductive filament; Initial gap
• ISSN: 1229-7607; 2092-7592
• DOI: 10.1007/s42341-021-00374-5

In the present as well as in the future world, the interaction of a person with the connected devices will be more. It has been predicted that these interactions will be approximately 4,800 times per day. Hence, the data will be acquired from the sensors and it will be processed. The aforementioned task needs fast and voluminous data storage as well as real-time processing. To accelerate the processing, emerging memory devices and technologies are the promising candidates for non-volatile, low-power, high- speed, low- cost, and capable of handling big data. The MRAM, FeRAM, Nano-RAM, Racetrack, and Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) are some of the strong candidates from the family of memory devices. In RRAM, the conduction is due to the formation and rupturing of the filament. The filament growth modulates the switching of the RRAM from the high resistive state (HRS) to the low resistive state (LRS) and vice-versa. The diameter and length of the filament are two important parameters that govern the resistance of the RRAM. In this work, we studied the impact of filament length and width variation on resistance of the RRAM. For our simulation work, the Stanford university RRAM model is employed. All the simulations are carried out using Cadence EDA. In the first case, we have neglected the width of the filament. The length of the filament is modeled as an initial gap (x0). The initial gap represents the distance from the tip of the filament to the top electrode. The initial gap is varied from 0.2 to 1.7 nm which corresponds to RRAM resistance of 115.8 Ω and 32.9 kΩ respectively. In the second case, the width of the filament (w0) and initial gap length both are varied alternatively. The width of the filament is varied from 0.5 to 5 nm. The initial gap length is varied from 0 to 3 nm. It has been observed that the HRS and LRS of RRAM are 248 kΩ and 3.03 kΩ respectively.