Voltage- and current-activated metal–insulator transition in VO₂-based electrical switches: a lifetime operation analysis

Abstract

Vanadium dioxide is an intensively studied material that undergoes a temperature-induced metal-insulator phase transition accompanied by a large change in electrical resistivity. Electrical switches based on this material show promising properties in terms of speed and broadband operation. The exploration of the failure behavior and reliability of such devices is very important in view of their integration in practical electronic circuits. We performed systematic lifetime investigations of two-terminal switches based on the electrical activation of the metal-insulator transition in VO thin films. The devices were integrated in coplanar microwave waveguides (CPWs) in series configuration. We detected the evolution of a 10 GHz microwave signal transmitted through the CPW, modulated by the activation of the VO switches in both voltage- and current-controlled modes. We demonstrated enhanced lifetime operation of current-controlled VO-based switching (more than 260 million cycles without failure) compared with the voltage-activated mode (breakdown at around 16 million activation cycles). The evolution of the electrical self-oscillations of a VO-based switch induced in the current-operated mode is a subtle indicator of the material properties modification and can be used to monitor its behavior under various external stresses in sensor applications.

Electrical switching dynamics and broadband microwave characteristics of VO2 radio frequency devices

“…2a A notable aspect of the I-V curves measured on our devices is that the electrically-driven resistance change (ΔR E = R(Off)/R(On)) is about three orders of magnitude across the E-MIT, essentially equivalent to the thermally-driven resistance change (ΔR T ) measured in R-T from room temperature to 100 °C. The ΔR E observed is significantly larger than most literature reports, [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] as noted in the introduction, and the comparable ΔR E and ΔR T values suggest that the full VO 2 device volume is being switched. In the above cited references, film thicknesses and metrology for determining ΔR E are similar to our study, and thus it is reasonable to make a direct comparison.…”

“…We investigate the corresponding RF S-parameter properties up to 13.5 GHz and power handling capabilities for possible RF applications in high frequency filters, modulators, and active microwave device components. 3,5,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] We show that high RF input power can reduce the resistance of VO 2 similarly as applied DC voltage. We compare transient and RF properties with published results on VO 2 and present lumped circuit element and 3D electromagnetic simulations that model the RF properties quite well.…”

Tuning the conductivity of vanadium dioxide films on silicon by swift heavy ion irradiation

“…41 The electrical resistivity decreases by 3 to 5 orders of magnitude depending on the crystalline quality of the deposited films, 42 stoichiometry and doping, 43 while the optical reflectivity markedly increases. 44,45 In VO2 thin films, this transition can be triggered by thermal, 33,40,46 electrical (charge injection, bias or Joule heating) 40,[46][47][48] or optical excitation (photon excitation), 44,45 and even by external pressure or strain. 49,50 The MIT temperature of VO 2 can be reduced by ion implantation of oxygen, producing implantation defects which are stable up to at least 120…”

Tunable Bragg filters with a phase transition material defect layer

“…For application purposes, we need to include a full cycle of insulator-metalinsulator, not only the intrinsic ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition which happens in a few ps [38]. Very short switching times have been reported: 5 µs by electrical heating [39], 3 µs by applying an electric field [40] and 200 ns by an optical pump-probe method [41].…”