Direct-Write NiO RRAM Cells

As electronic devices and their internal components have become more advanced, conventional computer memory technologies – which are a key component of all electronics – have struggled to fully keep up with this advancement. Meeting the demands of computer memory in modern electronics requires a zero-sum game approach of optimizing several, often competing performance benchmark criteria. Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is an emerging nonvolatile memory (NVM) technology with great appeal due to its ease of fabrication, low programming voltage, fast read/write times, compatibility with existing CMOS platforms, and demonstrated scalability into tiny dimensions thus enabling a higher density and smaller footprint. We fabricated NiO-based RRAM cells using aerosol jet printing to investigate the performance of direct-writing as an alternative method for RRAM cell fabrication compared to conventional techniques (e.g. sputtering, layer deposition, etc.). A fabricated NiO-based RRAM cell, with a NiO layer thickness of 0.426 μm and a cell area of 0.154 mm
²
, demonstrated a clearly separated high and low resistance state when a dual voltage sweep was applied across the two cell electrode terminals. Preliminary results show that NiO-RRAM aerosol jet printed cells can exhibit resistive switching, indicating that direct write methods can be used to fabricate many cells per batch with material layer thicknesses that, while thicker than what can be achieved using conventional techniques, are just as functional.