Yield improvement in fabrication of a molecular-gap atomic switch by eliminating potential leakage current paths

Abstract

A molecular-gap atomic switch is one of the emerging devices that works as a synaptic device. It shows good enough performance such as analog resistance change over five orders of magnitude. However, low yield in device fabrication due to short-circuit of as-fabricated devices has been a big issue. In this study, we Investigated the causes of the low yield and found several possible leakage current paths in unexpected routes. A new device structure and fabrication processes that eliminate the potential leakage paths were proposed. Operating characteristics were evaluated at each step in the improvement, and finally yield in the device fabrication was improved from 10% to 80%.