The Effect of Humidity on Reducing Forming Voltage in Conductive-Bridge Random Access Memory With an Alloy Electrode

This letter investigates Au
₃₀
Ag
₇₀
(alloy electrode)/SiO
₂
/TiN conductive-bridge random access memory (CBRAM) to verify the influence of ambient conditions on forming voltage (V
_F
) and the location of galvanic reaction. Previous literature demonstrates that the galvanic reaction in CBRAM with an alloy electrode results in a lower V
_F
. In this work, a higher environmental H
₂
O concentration results in a decrease in VF. From this change in V
_F
, we infer that environmental H
₂
O concentration influences the amount of galvanic reaction. Moreover, we verify the location of the galvanic reaction by varying electrode thickness. Finally, we propose a physical model to explain our observations.