Resistive Switching Characteristics of Al/Si3N4/p-Si MIS-Based Resistive Switching Memory Devices

In this study, we proposed and demonstrated a self-rectifying property of silicon nitride (Si3N4)-based resistive random access memory device by employing p-type silicon (p-Si) as bottom electrode. The RRAM devices consisted of Al/Si3N4/p-Si are fabricated by a low presure chemical vapor deposition and exhibited an intrinsic diode property with non-linear current-voltage (I-V) behavior. In addition, compared to conventional metal/insulator/metal (MIM) structure of Al/Si3N4/Ti RRAM cells, operating current in whole bias regions for proposed metal/insulator/semiconductor (MIS) cells has been dramatically lowered because introduced p-Si bottom electrode efficiently suppresses the current in both low and high resistive states. As a result, the results mean that by employing p-Si as bottom electrode the Si3N4-based RRAM cells can be applied to selector-free RRAM cells.