Fabrication of Resistive Random Access Memory by Atomic Force Microscope Local Anodic Oxidation

The fabrication of gallium, zinc and nickel oxide nanodots for application of resistive random access memory (RRAM) was demonstrated using the atomic force microscopy (AFM) local anodic oxidation technique. Thin metal films were deposited on indium tin oxide conductive glass substrates. In the atmospheric environment, using AFM equipped with an Ag -coated probe can generate metal oxide nanodots locally on the metal films. These nanodots act as an insulator layer in a single unit cell of the RRAM. The voltage-biased method allows devices to reset from a low-resistance state (LRS) to a high-resistance state (HRS) at 0.9 V. These results show the ability of the AFM local anodic oxidation to produce 50 nm NiO nanodots on glass substrates for potentially high-density RRAMs. As we developed the characteristics of the structure, we found that a lateral NiO nanobelt RRAM performs very low power operation from such experimental manufacturing process. Using a current-biased method, the lateral device switches from a HRS to a LRS with a low writing voltage of 0.64 V.