The Effect of Humidity on Reducing Forming Voltage in Conductive-Bridge Random Access Memory With an Alloy Electrode

Abstract

This letter investigates Au30Ag70 (alloy electrode)/SiO2/TiN conductive-bridge random access memory (CBRAM) to verify the influence of ambient conditions on forming voltage ( $\text{V}_{\textsf {F}}$ ) and the location of galvanic reaction. Previous literature demonstrates that the galvanic reaction in CBRAM with an alloy electrode results in a lower $\text{V}_{\textsf {F}}$ . In this work, a higher environmental H2O concentration results in a decrease in $\text{V}_{\textsf {F}}$ . From this change in $\text{V}_{\textsf {F}}$ , we infer that environmental H2O concentration influences the amount of galvanic reaction. Moreover, we verify the location of the galvanic reaction by varying electrode thickness. Finally, we propose a physical model to explain our observations.