TWO-TERMINAL MEMORY WITH INTRINSIC RECTIFYING CHARACTERISTIC

摘要

Providing for two-terminal memory having an inherent rectifying characteristic(s) is described herein. By way of example, the two-terminal memory can be a resistive switching device having one or more “on” states and an “off” state, to facilitate storage of digital information. A conductive filament can be electrically isolated from an electrode of the two-terminal memory by a thin tunneling layer, which permits a tunneling current for voltages greater in magnitude than a positive rectifying voltage or a negative rectifying voltage. The two-terminal memory cell can therefore have high resistance to small voltages, mitigating leakage currents in an array of the two-terminal memory cells. In addition, the memory cell can be conductive above a rectifying voltage, enabling reading of the memory cell in response to a suitable read bias, and erasing of the memory cell in response to a suitable negative erase bias.

主权项

1. A memory cell, comprising:
a bottom electrode; a top electrode comprising a material that is electrically conductive and configured to provide ions of the material under applied bias; a switching layer comprising a second material that is electrically resistive and at least in part permeable to the ions of the material of the top electrode, wherein a subset of the ions migrate into the switching layer in response to application of a program voltage to the memory cell and form a conductive filament through at least a portion of the switching layer; and a tunneling layer positioned between the switching layer and the bottom electrode that is electrically resistive and less permeable to the ions of the material of the top electrode relative to the switching layer, wherein the tunneling layer facilitates a tunneling current between the conductive filament and the bottom electrode.