Resistive switching device with highly-asymmetric current-voltage characteristics: its error analysis and new design parameter

Abstract

As a solution to future non-volatile random access memories (NV-RAMs) with large scale integration, many researchers are studying a crossbar array built with many resistive switching cells because of its simple architecture and scalability. However, a sneak current in the crossbar array that energizes memory cells not explicitly selected, raises various issues that need to be addressed for commercialization. Hence, we clearly describe the dominant causes and considerations for a passive crossbar array based on memristors. We discover that such resistive switches under reverse bias along the sneak current paths can play an important role to minimize the overall sneak current by blocking their reverse current. To develop commercializable passive crossbar resistive switching arrays, we demonstrate a read error bound and propose a new design parameter (RRL/RFL as ratio of reverse low resistance state and forward low resistance state) using the switching resistances on the forward and reverse current paths.