Characteristic of Flexible Reram with Al2O3/TiO2 Active Layer By ALD and PDA Process at Low Temperature
Authors: Nabatame Toshihide , Ohishi Tomoji , Inoue Mari , Takahashi Makoto , Ito Kazuhiro , Ikeda Naoki , Ohi Akihiko 
Published: December 2020

1. Introduction

The resistive random access memory (ReRAM), which is a nonvolatile memory device, on flexible plastic substrate have been widely investigated for future wearable device. The flexible ReRAM based on metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure is generally fabricated at relatively low temperature (~250°C) from the viewpoint of heat resistance of plastics. Numerous active layers, including Al2O3-TiO2, Al2O3-HfO2, and Al2O3-Ta2O5 bilayers have been studied in a aim of improving resistive swithing reliability. In our previous paper, we found that Pt/Al2O3/TiO2/Pt capacitor fabricated on Si substrate by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and a post-deposition annealing (PDA) process at 200°C, exhibited bipolar resistive swithing charactreistics with a high resistive state (HRS) and a low resisitive state (LRS) in a small switching voltage of ±0.8V.

In this paper, we fabricated Pt/Al2O3/TiO2/Pt capacitors on polyimide (PI) substrate by ALD and PDA process at 200°C and examined reliabilities of resistive swithing properties under tensile stress.

2. Experiment

MIM capacitors with Al2O3/TiO2 active layer were prepared as follows. First, a 200-nm-thick SiO2 layer as gas barrier was deposited on PI substrate. Pt bottom electrode (BE-Pt) was deposited on PI/SiO2 layer by DC sputtering. A 5-nm-thick Al2O3 layer was deposited on BE-Pt by ALD at 200°C using Al(CH3)3 precursor and H2O gas and subsquently PDA was carried out at 200°C in N2. Next, a 60-nm-thick TiO2 layer was deposited on Al2O3 layer by ALD at same temperature, using Ti[N(CH3)2]4 precursor and H2O gas and PDA was performed at 200°C in O2. Finally, Pt top electrode (TE-Pt) was fabricated on the TiO2 layer by DC sputtering. The area of the TE-Pt was approximately 1.5 ´ 10-4 cm-2.

3. Results and discussion

Each of Al2O3 and TiO2 layer of the flexible Pt/Al2O3/TiO2/Pt capacitor on PI had an amorphous structure because no spotty electron diffraction pattern was observed by TEM and EDS measurement. There were no severe chemical reactions in any of the layers.

Fig 1 shows the J-V characterestics of the flexible Pt/Al2O3/TiO2/Pt capacitor. The first forming process was performed to occur the irreversible breakdown of the Al2O3 layer when applied voltage was increased to + 7V. The second forming process was the creation of a TiO2-x layer due to the oxygen vacancies (Vo) near the TE-Pt and TiO2 layer when voltage was applied -3V. The set process (switching from the HRS to the LRS) caused at an applied voltage of about +1V and the reset process (switching from the LRS to the HRS) occurred at about -1V. These set and reset processes appeared due to the Vo transfer into TiO2 layer when voltage applied in positive and negative directions. Stable bipolar switching properies between the HRS and the LRS was obtained until the number of swithing cycles of 20. We also observed resistive swithing characteristics of about 2 orders of magnitude between the HRS and the LRS under tensile stress condition.

4. Summary

We conclude that flexible Pt/Al2O3/TiO2/Pt capacitors on PI exhibited stable bipolar switching characteristics of the HRS and LRS after two forming steps of breaking Al2O3 layer and creating a TiO2-x layer due to the Vo. Furthermore, a similar resistive switching property was obtained regardless of tensile stress.

Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number of JP20H02189. The authors thank all staff members of the Nanofabrication group of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) for their support.

Figure 1