Dot‐Product Operation in Crossbar Array Using a Self‐Rectifying Resistive Device

• Published in: Advanced materials interfaces Vol. 9; no. 20
• Main Authors: Jeon, Kanghyeok, Ryu, Jin Joo, Jeong, Doo Seok, Kim, Gun Hwan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-07-2022
• Subjects: Alumina-Titanium; Aluminum oxide; Arrays; crossbar array; Data storage; dot‐product operation; Electrical conduction; electrical selectivity; Leakage current; Parallel operation; resistive switching; Selectivity; self‐rectifying resistive devices; Switching; Unstructured data
• ISSN: 2196-7350; 2196-7350
• DOI: 10.1002/admi.202200392

Reducing computational complexity is essential in future computing systems for processing a large amount of unstructured data simultaneously. Dot‐product operations using crossbar array devices have attracted considerable attention owing to their simple device structure, intuitive operation scheme, and high computational efficiency of parallel operation. The resistive switching device is considered a promising candidate as the main data storage in the crossbar array owing to its highly reliable performance. In this study, a tri‐layer TaOx/Al2O3/Ti:SiOx‐based resistive switching device is proposed. The proposed device exhibits a high electrical selectivity of 2.5 × 105 based on the optimized biasing scheme, a stable non‐volatility, and reliable read disturbance characteristic of up to 108. Additionally, the device achieves high reading current of 1 µA and a low off‐leakage current of 1 pA, which favors the reliable characteristics in the data writing sequence and the dot‐product operation in the crossbar array device. Furthermore, the resistive switching mechanism based on the material and electrical conduction characteristics is analyzed. Lastly, the dot‐product operation in an 8 × 8 crossbar array is performed. As a result, the calculated and measured signal values in each column in the crossbar array of the device are found to be in good agreement.
Through the optimized materials processing and structure, the “self‐rectifying” resistive switching device has a merged functionality of “electrical selection” and “data storage” in one cell with high operational reliability. The experimentally demonstrated “parallel data processing” using the self‐rectifying resistive switching device in crossbar array verifies the device can be a strong candidate for a core device of the neuromorphic processor.