High Performance All Nonmetal SiNx Resistive Random Access Memory with Strong Process Dependence

Abstract All-nonmetal resistive random access memory (RRAM) with a N + –Si/SiN x /P + –Si structure was investigated in this study. The device performance of SiN x developed using physical vapor deposition (PVD) was significantly better than that of a device fabricated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The SiN x RRAM device developed using PVD has a large resistance window that is larger than 10 4 and exhibits good endurance to 10 5 cycles under switching pulses of 1 μs and a retention time of 10 4 s at 85 °C. Moreover, the SiN x RRAM device developed using PVD had tighter device-to-device distribution of set and reset voltages than those developed using PECVD. Such tight distribution is crucial to realise a large-size cross-point array and integrate with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology to realise electronic neurons. The high performance of the SiN x RRAM device developed using PVD is attributed to the abundant defects in the PVD dielectric that was supported by the analysed conduction mechanisms obtained from the measured current–voltage characteristics.