Understanding the impact of programming pulses and electrode materials on the endurance properties of scaled Ta2O5 RRAM cells

We demonstrate the strong impact of reset amplitude and duration on the endurance degradation of scaled TiN\Ta
₂
O
₅
\Ta cells, which from ab-initio and electrical switching simulation is attributed to O interaction with TiN. Clear improvements are obtained using (i) shorter write pulses, (ii) low O-affinity Ru bottom electrode, and or (iii) higher O-affinity HfO
₂
dielectric.