A numerical analysis of progressive and abrupt reset in conductive bridging RRAM

Abstract

The authors investigate the conduction filament (CF) properties of a Cu---$$\textit{HfO}_{2}$$HfO2 based conductive bridging resistive memory device by implementing a numerical simulation of the low and high resistive states, starting from a random initial distribution of oxygen vacancies (OV) defects states in the resistive switching layer (RSL) to a formed CF and ending in a ruptured state. A calculation approach which accounts for both the statistical nature of the system and the synergetic effect of OV and Cu species on the overall conductance is presented. By defining a disorder parameter, the correlation between the OV initial distribution and the CF reset behavior is analyzed. A dependence of the reset transition, being either abrupt or progressive, on the physical shape of the CF which in turn is affected by this disorder is shown to exist based on the simulation results.