RRAMCrossbarArrayWithCell
RRAMCrossbarArrayWithCell
conclusion due to too much simplicity used in the analysis. A In the equation, g1 and g2 represent the conductance of Ron
detailed and comprehensive analysis focused on the device and and Roff , and α is the nonlinear factor in the high-resistance
circuit interaction is still lacking, particularly considering the state, which can represent the nonlinear characteristics of
RRAM device and selection device variation and their impacts RRAM I–V curves. With a larger nonlinear factor α, the I–V
on circuit performance. curves may be more similar to the exponential function and
In this paper, the impacts of variation of RRAM device and become steeper. It should be noted that the model predictions
selection device characteristics on the crossbar array perfor- can be fitted well with the measured I–V curves of the high-
mance based on a circuit simulation are addressed. The device and low-resistance states of both bipolar and unipolar RRAM
characteristics and correlated analytical models of RRAM and devices [30].
selection devices will be described in Section II. The cross- When we consider the selection device, a diode, a selector,
bar array architecture and read/write operation modes will be and a transistor may be used for the RRAM crossbar array.
also discussed in this part. In Section III, we mainly discuss However, due to the intrinsic drawback of more than 8F2 cell
the impacts of selected cell position and the data patterns size, the 1T1R structure cannot be scaled down to an ideal size
of the memory cells on the circuit performance. We investi- compared with other structures [20]. Thus, we mainly discuss
gated the worst case scenario of selected cell and data patterns the more promising 1S1R and 1D1R structures in this paper.
for different read and write operation modes. The simulation The 1D1R structure is used for unipolar RRAM, whereas the
setup is also summarized in this part. According to the worst 1S1R structure is used for bipolar RRAM. The selector is
case scenario, the impacts of the device characteristics of actually a device with bidirectional diode I–V characteristics
RRAM and selector devices on the circuit performance are and has been extensively studied in recent years [20], [35]–[37].
discussed in Section IV. The variation of high/low resistance Considering that the selector is actually a bidirectional diode
and nonlinear characteristics of RRAM and the variation of and the similar I–V characteristics of high- and low-resistance
resistance, turn-on voltage, and nonlinear characteristics of states of bipolar and unipolar RRAM devices, we can mainly
selection device and their impacts on the read operation are discuss the 1S1R structure because the I–V curves of the 1D1R
investigated. structure can be obtained simply by using only one polarity of
the 1S1R structure and the discussion may be similar.
For a selector, we can use the function to fit the I–V curves
II. D EVICE AND C IRCUIT S TRUCTURE
as follows:
A. Device Characteristics and Analytical Device Model
For selector : I = g × exp ((V − Von ) × β) . (3)
The RRAM device structure is usually a resistive switching
layer sandwiched between two electrodes. The resistance of the
In the equation, g represents the conductance of the selector,
device can be changed by applying voltage on the electrodes, Von is the turn-on voltage of the selector, and β is the nonlinear
which induce resistance change of the resistive switching layer factor of the selector.
between a high-resistance state Roff and a low-resistance state
According to the measured data [20], I–V curves can be
Ron . The transition process from a high-resistance state Roff to fitted using the analytical model of RRAM and selector devices,
a low-resistance state Ron is called SET process, whereas from as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). The simulated I–V curves using
Ron to Roff , it is called RESET process. In most RRAM devices,
the analytical device model can fit the experimental data well.
an electrical forming process is necessary to achieve reversible Then, the I–V curves of a 1S1R memory cell can be simulated,
resistive switching between Ron and Roff . The switching modes as shown in Fig. 2(c). The current of low-resistance state is
may be classified into two modes, i.e., unipolar and bipolar
strongly constrained by the selector when the applied voltage
modes. Unipolar switching mode means the switching direction is lower than the turn-on voltage in the 1S1R structure, as
depends on the amplitude of the applied voltage but not on
compared with the structure without the selector.
the polarity of the applied voltage. Thus, SET/RESET can occur
at the same polarity. If unipolar switching can symmetrically
occur at both positive and negative voltages, it is also referred B. RRAM Crossbar Array Architecture
as a nonpolar switching mode. Bipolar switching mode means
The crossbar array is composed of bit lines and word lines,
the switching direction depends on the polarity of the applied
voltage. Thus, SET can only occur at one polarity and RESET and the memory cell is positioned at the cross points of bit
lines and word lines, as shown in Fig. 3(a). The inset shows the
can only occur at the reverse polarity. In this paper, the study
memory cell structure, the selection device is in series with the
mainly focused on the bipolar RRAM due to the superior
memory performance to unipolar devices. RRAM device, and the memory resistance is the total resistance
of the two devices.
In order to accomplish the circuit simulation, the analytical
Due to the leakage paths in the crossbar array, some prob-
models of RRAM and selector devices are developed. In an
RRAM device, Ron and Roff can be fitted well with the function lems such as output signal degradation, programming failure,
and crosstalk problem may happen in the array, as shown
as follows [30]:
in Fig. 3(b). During read operation, the leakage paths in the
For Ron : I = g1 × V (1) unselected cell will degrade the output signal and make it hard
to distinguish the resistance states of the memory cells. There-
For Roff : I = g2 × sinh (α × V ). (2) fore, the selection device is used to annihilate this problem.
DENG et al.: RRAM CROSSBAR ARRAY WITH CELL SELECTION DEVICE 721
Fig. 4. Schematic of the crossbar array circuit. The memory cell, interconnect
resistance, and Rsense are shown in the figure. V1 and V2 represent the voltage
applied on the unselected word lines and bit lines. The unselected cells can be
divided into three groups as B1, B2, and B3. The memory cells in the same
group share the same resistance state, whereas in different groups, they can be
different.
TABLE I
S IMULATION PARAMETERS U SED IN T HIS PAPER
Fig. 6. Variation of the RRAM I–V curves as the variation of the Ron and
Roff characteristics in the analytical model. The impact of the increase in the
conductance of Ron (g1 ) and Roff (g2 ) and the nonlinear factor α of Roff is
simulated. The increase in the conductance of different resistance states results
in a larger current at a constant voltage, whereas the I–V curves become steeper
with a larger nonlinear factor α.
R EFERENCES [22] M.-J. Lee, C. B. Lee, S. Kim, H. Yin, J. Park, S. E. Ahn, B. S. Kang,
K. H. Kim, G. Stefanovich, I. Song, S. W. Kim, J. H. Lee, S. J. Chung,
[1] H.-T. Lue, Y.-H. Hsiao, K.-Y. Hsieh, S.-Y. Wang, T. Yang, K.-C. Chen, Y. H. Kim, C. S. Lee, J. B. Park, I. G. Baek, C. J. Kim, and Y. Park, “Stack
and C.-Y. Lu, “Scaling feasibility study of planar thin floating gate (FG) friendly all-oxide 3D RRAM using GaInZnO peripheral TFT realized
NAND Flash devices and size effect challenges beyond 20 nm,” in IEDM over glass substrates,” in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2008, pp. 1–4.
Tech. Dig., 2011, pp. 203–206. [23] F. Nardi, S. Balatti, S. Larentis, and D. Ielmini, “Complementary switch-
[2] J. Akerman, “Applied physics: Toward a universal memory,” Science, ing in metal oxides: Toward diode-less crossbar RRAMs,” in IEDM Tech.
vol. 308, no. 5721, pp. 508–510, Apr. 22, 2005. Dig., 2011, pp. 31.1.1–31.1.4.
[3] J.-H. Park, Y. Kim, W. C. Lim, J. H. Kim, S. H. Park, J. H. Kim, W. Kim, [24] E. Linn, R. Rosezin, C. Kügeler, and R. Waser, “Complementary resistive
K. W. Kim, J. H. Jeong, K. S. Kim, H. Kim, Y. J. Lee, S. C. Oh, switches for passive nanocrossbar memories,” Nat. Mater., vol. 9, no. 5,
J. E. Lee, S. O. Park, S. Watts, D. Apalkov, V. Nikitin, M. Krounbi, pp. 403–406, May 2010.
S. Jeong, S. Choi, H. K. Kang, and C. Chung, “Enhancement of data [25] M. M. Ziegler and M. R. Stan, “CMOS/nano co-design for crossbar-based
retention and write current scaling for sub-20 nm STT-MRAM by utilizing molecular electronic systems,” IEEE Trans. Nanotechnol., vol. 2, no. 4,
dual interfaces for perpendicular magnetic anisotropy,” in VLSI Symp. pp. 217–230, Dec. 2003.
Tech. Dig., 2012, pp. 57–58. [26] M. M. Ziegler and M. R. Stan, “Design and analysis of crossbar circuits
[4] J.-G. Zhu, “Magnetoresistive random access memory: The path to com- for molecular nanoelectronics,” in Proc. 2nd Conf. IEEE-NANO, 2002,
petitiveness and scalability,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 96, no. 11, pp. 1786–1798, pp. 323–327.
Nov. 2008. [27] J. Mustafa and R. Waser, “A novel reference scheme for reading passive
[5] A. Pirovano, A. L. Lacaita, A. Benvenuti, F. Pellizzer, S. Hudgens, and resistive crossbar memories,” IEEE Trans. Nanotechnol., vol. 5, no. 6,
R. Bez, “Scaling analysis of phase-change memory technology,” in IEDM pp. 687–691, Nov. 2006.
Tech. Dig., 2003, pp. 29.6.1–29.6.4. [28] A. Flocke and T. G. Noll, “Fundamental analysis of resistive nano-
[6] H.-S. P. Wong, S. Raoux, S. Kim, J. Liang, J. P. Reifenberg, B. Rajendran, crossbars for the use in hybrid nano/CMOS-memory,” in Proc. 33rd
M. Asheghi, and K. E. Goodson, “Phase change memory,” Proc. IEEE, ESSCIRC, 2007, pp. 328–331.
vol. 98, no. 12, pp. 2201–2227, Dec. 2010. [29] J. Liang, S. Yeh, S. S. Wong, and H.-S. P. Wong, “Scaling challenges for
[7] M. Kinoshita, Y. Sasago, H. Minemura, Y. Anzai, M. Tai, Y. Fujisaki, the cross-point resistive memory array to sub-10 nm node—An intercon-
S. Kusaba, T. Morimoto, T. Takahama, T. Mine, A. Shima, Y. Yonamoto, nect perspective,” in Proc. IEEE 4th IMW, 2012, pp. 1–4.
and T. Kobayashi, “Scalable 3-D vertical chain-cell-type phase-change [30] J. Liang and H.-S. P. Wong, “Cross-point memory array without cell
memory with 4F2 poly-Si diodes,” in Proc. VLSI Symp. Technol., 2012, selectors—Device characteristics and data storage pattern dependencies,”
pp. 35–36. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 57, no. 10, pp. 2531–2538, Oct. 2010.
[8] S. Paydavosi, K. Aidala, P. R. Brown, P. Hashemi, T. P. Osedach, [31] P. O. Vontobel, W. Robinett, P. J. Kuekes, D. R. Stewart, J. Straznicky, and
J. L. Hoyt, and V. Bulovic, “High-density charge storage on molecular R. S. Williams, “Writing to and reading from a nano-scale crossbar mem-
thin films—Candidate materials for high storage capacity memory cells,” ory based on memristors,” Nanotechnology, vol. 20, no. 42, p. 425 204,
in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2011, pp. 24.4.1–24.4.4. Oct. 21, 2009.
[9] M. Qazi, M. Clinton, S. Bartling, and A. P. Chandrakasan, “A low-voltage [32] S. Shin, K. Kim, and S. M. Kang, “Analysis of passive memristive de-
1 Mb FRAM in 130 μm CMOS featuring time-to-digital sensing for vices array: Data-dependent statistical model and self-adaptable sense
expanded operating margin,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 47, no. 1, resistance for RRAMs,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 100, no. 6, pp. 2021–2032,
pp. 141–150, Jan. 2012. Jun. 2012.
[10] R. Waser and M. Aono, “Nanoionics-based resistive switching memo- [33] ITRS, International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, 2011.
ries,” Nat. Mater., vol. 6, no. 11, pp. 833–840, Nov. 2007. [34] Y.-C. Chen, C. F. Chen, T. Chen, J. Y. Yu, S. Wu, S. L. Lung, R. Liu,
[11] N. Xu, B. Gao, L. F. Liu, B. Sun, X. Y. Liu, R. Q. Han, J. F. Kang, and and C.-Y. Lu, “An access-transistor-free (0T/1R) non-volatile resistance
B. Yu, “A unified physical model of switching behavior in oxide-based random access memory (RRAM) using a novel threshold switching,
RRAM,” in Proc. VLSI Symp. Technol., 2008, pp. 100–101. self-rectifying chalcogenide device,” in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2003,
[12] H.-S. P. Wong, H.-Y. Lee, S. Yu, Y.-S. Chen, Y. Wu, P.-S. Chen, B. Lee, pp. 37.4.1–37.4.4.
F. T. Chen, and M.-J. Tsai, “Metal–oxide RRAM,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 100, [35] M. J. Lee, Y. Park, D. S. Suh, E. H. Lee, S. Seo, D. C. Kim, R. Jung,
no. 6, pp. 1951–1970, Jun. 2012. B. S. Kang, S. E. Ahn, C. B. Lee, D. H. Seo, Y. K. Cha, I. K. Yoo,
[13] X. Guan, S. Yu, and H.-S. P. Wong, “On the switching parameter vari- J. S. Kim, and B. H. Park, “Two series oxide resistors applicable to high
ation of metal–oxide RRAM—Part I: Physical modeling and simulation speed and high density nonvolatile memory,” Adv. Mater., vol. 19, no. 22,
methodology,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 1172– pp. 3919–3923, Nov. 2007.
1182, Apr. 2012. [36] D. C. Kau, S. Tang, I. V. Karpov, R. Dodge, B. Klehn, J. A. Kalb, J. Strand,
[14] S. Yu, X. Guan, and H.-S. P. Wong, “On the switching parameter variation A. Diaz, N. Leung, J. Wu, S. Lee, T. Langtry, K.-W. Chang, C. Papagianni,
of metal oxide RRAM—Part II: Model corroboration and device design J. Lee, J. Hirst, S. Erra, E. Flores, N. Righos, H. Castro, and G. Spadini, “A
strategy,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 1183–1188, stackable cross point phase change memory,” in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2009,
Apr. 2012. pp. 617–620.
[15] B. Gao, J. F. Kang, Y. S. Chen, F. F. Zhang, B. Chen, P. Huang, L. F. Liu, [37] K. Gopalakrishnan, R. S. Shenoy, C. T. Rettner, K. Virwani,
X. Y. Liu, Y. Y. Wang, X. A. Tran, Z. R. Wang, H. Y. Yu, and A. Chin, D. S. Bethune, R. M. Shelby, G. W. Burr, A. Kellock, R. S. King,
“Oxide-based RRAM: Unified microscopic principle for both unipolar K. Nguyen, A. N. Bowers, M. Jurich, B. Jackson, A. M. Friz, T. Topuria,
and bipolar switching,” in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2011, pp. 17.4.1–17.4.4. P. M. Rice, and B. N. Kurdi, “Highly-scalable novel access device based
[16] Y. Chen, H. Li, W. Zhang, and R. Pino, “The 3D stacking bipolar RRAM on mixed ionic electronic conduction (MIEC) materials for high density
for high density,” IEEE Trans. Nanotechnol., vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 948–956, phase change memory (PCM) arrays,” in Proc. VLSI Symp. Technol.,
Sep. 2012. 2010, pp. 205–206.
[17] C. Cagli, F. Nardi, D. Ielmini, B. Harteneck, Z. Tan, and Y. Zhang,
“Nanowire-based RRAM crossbar memory with metallic core-oxide shell
nanostructure,” Proc. ESSDERC, pp. 103–106, 2011.
[18] C. Nauenheim, C. Kugeler, A. Rudiger, R. Waser, A. Flocke, and
T. G. Noll, “Nano-crossbar arrays for nonvolatile resistive RAM (RRAM)
applications,” Proc. 8th IEEE Conf. NANO, pp. 464–467, 2008.
[19] X. A. Tran, B. Gao, J. F. Kang, L. Wu, Z. R. Wang, Z. Fang,
K. L. Pey, Y. C. Yeo, A. Y. Du, B. Y. Nguyen, M. F. Li, and H. Y. Yu,
Yexin Deng is currently working toward the B.S. de-
“High performance unipolar AlOy /HfOx /Ni based RRAM compatible
gree in the Department of Microelectronics, Peking
with Si diodes for 3D application,” in Proc. VLSI Symp. Technol., 2011,
University, Beijing, China.
pp. 44–45.
[20] J.-J. Huang, Y.-M. Tseng, W.-C. Luo, C.-W. Hsu, and T.-H. Hou, “One Since 2011, he has been an Undergraduate Re-
selector-one resistor (1S1R) crossbar array for high-density flexible mem- search Assistant with the Institute of Microelectron-
ory applications,” IEDM Tech. Dig., pp. 31.7.1–31.7.4, 2011. ics, Peking University.
[21] C.-H. Wang, Y.-H. Tsai, K.-C. Lin, M.-F. Chang, Y.-C. King, C.-J. Lin,
S.-S. Sheu, Y.-S. Chen, H.-Y. Lee, F. T. Chen, and M.-J. Tsai, “Three-
dimensional 4F2 ReRAM cell with CMOS logic compatible process,” in
IEDM Tech. Dig., 2010, pp. 29.6.1–29.6.4.
726 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 60, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2013
Peng Huang received the B.S. degree from Xidian Lang Zeng received the Ph.D. degree in micro-
University, Xi’an, China, in 2010. He is currently electronics from Peking University, Beijing, China,
working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Institute of in 2012.
Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China. He is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the
Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University.
Juncheng Wang received the B.S. degree in micro- Xiaoyan Liu received the Ph.D. degree in micro-
electronics in 2011 from Peking University, Beijing, electronics from Peking University, Beijing, China,
China, where he is currently working toward the in 2001.
Ph.D. degree. She is currently a Professor in the Institute of
Microelectronics, Peking University.