Modeling of electron conduction in contact resistive random access memory devices as random telegraph noise.

The intense development and study of resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices has opened a new era in semiconductor memory manufacturing. Resistive switching and carrier conduction inside RRAM films have become critical issues in recent years. Electron trapping/detrapping behavior is observed and investigated in the proposed contact resistive random access memory (CR-RAM) cell. Through the fitting of the space charge limiting current (SCLC) model, and analysis in terms of the random telegraph noise (RTN) model, the temperature-dependence of resistance levels and the high-temperature data retention behavior of the contact RRAM film are successfully and completely explained. Detail analyses of the electron capture and emission from the traps by forward and reverse read measurements provide further verifications for hopping conduction mechanism and current fluctuation discrepancies.