Ti/HfO2 Based RRAM Operation Voltage Scaling for Embedded Memory

Abstract

Consumer gadgets make up the fastest growing market for electronic devices today. These products will rely more and more on embedded storage-type memory, which can store system and processing data without impacting standby power consumption. For embedded memory applications, including microcontrollers, automotive, and mobile code storage applications, NOR flash is a popular choice for its non-volatility and fast read time on the order of nanoseconds. However, its operation voltage is larger than 10V, and the write speed exceeds 10 microseconds. Although increasing density is not a key requirement for process scaling of embedded memory down to advanced nodes, the operation voltage needs to be reduced to continually lower power consumption and to match foundry offerings in the logic and mixed-signal sectors, both in the core voltages and the I/O voltages. Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is proposed to be such a scalable embedded memory technology. RRAM offers the advantages of CMOS process compatibility, high speed, high endurance, low-voltage operation, and high cell density. In this article, we demonstrate that the operation voltage can be reduced to under 1V in the Ti/HfOx RRAM system with a multi-level RESET operation strategy, while keeping the write speed to less than 2 microseconds, opening up opportunities for RRAM in embedded memory applications.