Effect of hydrogen/deuterium incorporation on electroforming voltage of SiO x resistive random access memory

Abstract

The electroforming voltage (V ef) of silicon oxide resistive random access memories treated with post-deposition-anneal (PDA) and/or post-metal-anneal in different gas ambients is compared. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy result shows significant incorporation of H/D atoms in SiO x after anneals in H 2/N 2 and D 2/N 2. V ef is significantly reduced after anneal in H 2/N 2 or D 2/N 2, but D 2/N 2 anneal results in even lower V ef, which could be due to more stable Si passivation in the Si-D/O pair as compared to the Si-H/O pair. On and off state currents are measured at 200 mV gate bias every 60 s for a total time of 6000 s with results showing good data retention for both on and off states. On and off state currents are observed to decrease when using PDA resulting in lower overall power dissipation. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.