Resistive switching characteristic and uniformity of low-power HfOx-based resistive random access memory with the BN insertion layer**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61274113, 11204212, 61404091, 51502203, and 51502204), the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant Nos. 14JCZDJC31500 and 14JCQNJC00800), and the Tianjin Science and Technology Developmental Funds of Universities and Colleges, China (Grant No.

Abstract

In this letter, the Ta/HfOx/BN/TiN resistive switching devices are fabricated and they exhibit low power consumption and high uniformity each. The reset current is reduced for the HfOx/BN bilayer device compared with that for the Ta/HfOx/TiN structure. Furthermore, the reset current decreases with increasing BN thickness. The HfOx layer is a dominating switching layer, while the low-permittivity and high-resistivity BN layer acts as a barrier of electrons injection into TiN electrode. The current conduction mechanism of low resistance state in the HfOx/BN bilayer device is space-charge-limited current (SCLC), while it is Ohmic conduction in the HfOx device.