Read operation performance of large selectorless cross-point array with self-rectifying memristive device

Abstract

Memristive device based passive crossbar arrays hold a great promise for high-density and non-volatile memories. A significant challenge of ultra-high density integration of these crossbars is unwanted sneak-path currents. The most common way of addressing this issue today is an integrated or external selecting device to block unwanted current paths. In this paper, we use a memristive device with intrinsic rectifying behavior to suppress sneak-path currents in the crossbar. We systematically evaluate the read operation performance of large-scale crossbar arrays with regard to read margin and power consumption for different crossbar sizes, nanowire interconnect resistances, ON and OFF resistances, rectification ratios under different read-schemes. Outcomes of this study allow improved understanding of the trade-off between read margin, power consumption and read-schemes. Most importantly, this study provides a guideline for circuit designers to improve the performance of oxide-based resistive memory (RRAM) based cross-point arrays. Overall, self-rectifying behavior of the memristive device efficiently improves the read operation performance of large-scale selectorless cross-point arrays.