Metal induced crystallized poly-Si-based conductive bridge resistive switching memory device with one transistor and one resistor architecture

In this letter, the metal induced crystallization (MIC) process is used in the Si-based conductive bridging resistive random access memory (CBRAM) application. The amorphous Si (a-Si) is transformed to crystallized poly-silicon (poly-Si) at a low temperature by using Ni metal for inducing poly-Si to provide the resistive switching. The MIC process can produce a highly preferred orientation poly-Si film, which can create the exact paths or grain boundaries through the top and down electrodes in the present CBRAM device. The grain boundary in MIC poly-Si layer can confine the conductive filament of metal bridging growth in it, which can improve the switching fluctuation behavior in the nonvolatile memory application. Compared with the a-Si based device, a significant improvement in terms of resistive switching parameters such as stability and resistance distribution is demonstrated in the MIC poly-Si CBRAM device. Moreover, the well-behaved memory performance, such as high ON/OFF resistance ratio (4 order), a large AC endurance (10⁶), and good retention characteristics (10⁴s at 125 °C) are achieved in the Cu/poly-Si/n⁺-Si CMOS compatible cross bar structure.