Thermal effects on the I-V characteristics of filamentary VCM based ReRAM-cells using a nanometer-sized heater

The physical principle of redox based resistive switching memory cells is based on ionic and electronic transport propertips. Both normally reveal a strong temperature dependence. A novel heating setup enables to study the influence of high temperatures on the switching mechanism of these memories. It consists of a 100 nm-wide Pt heating line and includes a Pt/Ta
₂
O
₅
/Ta-based ReRAM cell. It is heated up by inducing a current through the Pt line and employing the Joule heating effect. From this setup unique features are obtained by I-V measurements of the ReRAM cell. For instance, a negative differential resistance during the SET process is observed, which results from the circuitry of the heating structure. In case of the high resistive state, an increase in the current is observed at higher temperatures. In contrast, the current in the low resistive state is temperature independent. The increasing temperatures also lead to a reduction of the switching voltages of the SET and RESET events.