Investigation of the physical mechanisms governing data-retention in down to 10nm nano-trench Al2O3/CuTeGe conductive bridge RAM (CBRAM)

In this work, we present an experimental and theoretical analysis of scaled (down to 10nm) Al
₂
O
₃
/CuTeGe based CBRAM. We focus on the understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for the failure of high and low resistance states at high temperature. Using a numerical model combined with ab-initio calculations, we elucidate for the 1
^st
time at our knowledge the role of the filament morphology on the resistance instability. We demonstrate that an optimized filament shape (tuned by adjusting the operating conditions) significantly improves the memory window stability at high temperatures.