Structural and resistance switching properties were investigated in the CoO resistance random access memory (RRAM) with the Ta electrode. The intermediate layer consisting of Co and Ta oxides was confirmed at the interface by the transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The great affinity with oxygen in Ta together with a high resistivity of the Ta oxide improves the operational performance of RRAM. The controllability of the resistance after forming and the low-current operation property were substantially improved by using the load resistor connected in series with CoO RRAM with the Ta electrode. The reset current less than 0.2 mA and the switching speed faster than 20 ns were demonstrated.

The Pt∕TiOx∕Pt trilayer with electrically asymmetrical interface have been synthesized by means of the reactive sputtering technique followed by the oxygen annealing. The initial current-voltage characteristics in the Pt∕TiOx∕Pt trilayer cell have rectifying behavior originated from the Schottky junction formed between TiOx and Pt top electrode layer. The series connection of Pt∕TiOx∕Pt trilayer cells brings about the control of the reset and set voltages depending on the resistance of the connected Schottky diode, which is the demonstration of the resistance switching in the resistance random access memory with the one diode and one resistance structure using Schottky barrier diode.

Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM) and conductive atomic force microscopy (C‐AFM) together with micro X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were performed for the stacking structure comprising of the transition metal oxide Co–O and metal electrode, which exhibits large reproducible resistance switching. The application of the external voltage by the C‐AFM cantilever decreases the resistance of Co–O, which well accords with the non‐polar forming process observed in the Pt/Co–O/Pt trilayer, known as the candidate of resistance random access memory (ReRAM). Furthermore, the KFM and micro XPS experimentally revealed that the local reductive reaction of Co–O possibly nucleates the defect related energy levels which dominates the current conduction in the low resistance state. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The reactive ion etching (RIE) of the binary transition-metal oxides (TMOs) NiO, CuO and CoO, which are expected to be key materials of resistance random access memory (RRAMÔ), was investigated. We found that inductively coupled plasma using CHF 3 -based discharge, which is highly compatible with conventional semiconductor RIE, is effective for the TMOs studied here. Furthermore, device fabrication using Pt/CoO/Pt trilayers is carried out, and a large change in resistance, which is an essential functionality of RRAM, was successfully observed. This should be definite evidence of a successful RIE realized in the present device fabrication.

The resistance switching in Pt/Co-O/Pt and Ta/Co-O/Pt has been investigated. Compared to Pt/Co-O/Pt, the reset current was more efficiently decreased in Ta/Co-O/Pt by using the load resistor in the forming process, indicating that the embedded resistance component with little parasitic capacitance effectively limits the current in the forming process. The reset process with the reset current lower than 0.15 mA was successfully demonstrated in Ta/Co-O/Pt. In addition, the high speed resistance switching by the voltage pulse with the pulse width of 20 ns was carried out, by investigating the pulse voltage height dependence of reset speed in Ta/Co-O/Pt.