Irregular Resistive Switching Behaviors of Al2O3-Based Resistor with Cu Electrode

Abstract

In this work, we examined the irregular resistive switching behaviors of a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible Cu/Al2O3/Si resistor device. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the chemical and material compositions of a Al2O3 thin film layer and Si substrate. Bipolar resistive switching occurred in a more stable manner than the unipolar resistive switching in the device did. Five cells were verified over 50 endurance cycles in terms of bipolar resistive switching, and a good retention was confirmed for 10,000 s in the high-resistance state (HRS) and the low-resistance state (LRS). Both high reset current (~10 mA) and low reset current (<100 μA) coexisted in the bipolar resistive switching. We investigated nonideal resistive switching behaviors such as negative-set and current overshoot, which could lead to resistive switching failure.