Analysis of conduction mechanism in silicon nitride–based RRAM

The conduction mechanism in Ti/Si₃N₄/p–Si memory stack is described. In order to analyse the conduction mechanism, we have measured the I–V characteristics in voltage sweep mode and performed I–V curve fitting. The temperature dependence in Ti/Si₃N₄/p–Si stacked cell has also been investigated because we cannot identify the conduction mechanism just based on the I–V curve fitting. From I–V curve fitting and temperature measurement data, we have found that space charge limited conduction (SCLC) model is the most probable mechanism in both high resistance state (HRS) and low resistance state (LRS).

Keywords: RRAM, resistive RAM, random access memory, conduction mechanism, Si3N4, silicon nitride, metal insulator semiconductors, MIS structure, SCLC, space charge limited conduction, temperature dependence, nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, memory stack