In Situ Observation of Compliance-Current Overshoot and Its Effect on Resistive Switching

The compliance-current dependence of the resistive-switching behaviors is investigated in $\hbox{TaN/Cu}_{x}\hbox{O/Cu}$ memory devices with 1R architecture and 1T1R architecture, respectively. The correlation of reset current ${I}_{\rm reset}$ and on-state resistance ${R}_{\rm on}$ can be verified by adjusting the compliance current ${I}_{\rm comp}$. Meanwhile, ${I}_{\rm reset}$ and ${R}_{ \rm on}$ become independent on ${I}_{\rm comp}$ in the 1R architecture when ${I}_{\rm comp}$ is below 1 mA. A serious compliance-current overshoot phenomenon is in situ observed in 1R-architecture device, and it remarkably affects the resistive-switching characteristics because the compliance current dominates the memory behaviors. Therefore, resistive-switching investigation based on 1T1R architecture is much more reliable.