Abstract
In this article, a 3-D electrothermal numerical model is used to perform the signal and thermal integrity analysis of 3-D stacked Resistive-switching random access memory (RRAM) arrays. Two main issues are found: voltage drop along the interconnects and thermal crosstalk between the memory cells. Possible solutions to these issues are here thoroughly investigated, based either on new biasing schemes or new materials. Especially, conventional nickel bars are replaced by interconnects made by copper (Cu) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), whose electrical and thermal parameters are here described using physically based models. The analysis is performed on a $5\times 5\times5$ array, under a real case of a RESET switching, which is the worst case scenario from the electrothermal point of view. Simulation results show that the use of CNTs reduces the voltage drop in both word and bitline (BL) interconnects, thermal crosstalk, and the maximum working temperature; hence, it mitigates many of the crucial issues in the roadmap for the large-scale monolithic 3-D RRAM integration.
Highlights
O NE of the most promising innovative memory concepts is given by the so-called resistive-switching random access memories (RRAMs) that show outstanding performance in terms of speed and power consumption compared with the existing technologies [1]
The reference RRAM cell analyzed in this article belongs to the latter category: it is assumed as the unit cell [X-point, Fig. 1(b)] for a 3-D stacked arrays of RRAMs [see Fig. 1(a)]
In the absence of the conductive filament (CF), the RRAM is at the high resistive state (HRS), whereas, once the CF is formed, it switches to the low-resistive state (LRS)
Summary
O NE of the most promising innovative memory concepts is given by the so-called resistive-switching random access memories (RRAMs) that show outstanding performance in terms of speed and power consumption compared with the existing technologies [1]. A full 3-D electrothermal numerical model is used to analyze the signal and thermal integrity of 3-D stacked RRAM arrays and study solutions to the abovementioned issues In this multiphysics model (described in Section II), the electrical power dissipation is the heat source of the thermal problem, and temperature-dependent electrical parameters are considered into the electrical one. Another novel contribution of this article is the study of the array performance when new materials are adopted to realize the bars to be used for BL/WL, conventionally made by nickel. A conventional material (copper) and novel nanomaterial carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered
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