Patent ID: 8546275

Claim:
A method for fabricating a resistive switching memory element, the method comprising: forming a metal oxide film stack over a lower electrode disposed on a substrate, wherein the metal oxide film stack comprises a metal oxide buffer layer disposed over a metal oxide bulk layer, and the metal oxide film stack is formed by: depositing the metal oxide bulk layer over the lower electrode during a first atomic layer deposition process, wherein the metal oxide bulk layer substantially comprises MO x , where M is hafnium or zirconium and x is within a range from about 1.65 to about 1.95; and depositing the metal oxide buffer layer over the metal oxide bulk layer during a second atomic layer deposition process, wherein the metal oxide buffer layer substantially comprises M′O 2 , where M′ is zirconium if M is hafnium or M′ is hafnium if M is zirconium.