Development of resistive switching device with controllable volatility via laser-irradiation

Abstract

Resistive switching (RS) based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is one of the candidates for the future memory device due to their simple metal–insulator–metal structures, ultrafast switching speed, low power operation, a hysteretic I-V characteristic, low fabrication cost, CMOS compatibility, and high scalability. In particular, the neuromorphic application of RS memory has widely studied including non-volatile memory with synaptic properties and volatile memory with neuronal properties. However, most of them only emulate the characteristics of either synapse or neuron, and they cannot imitate both characteristics on a single device. Therefore, development of RS device with controllable volatility is required to realize compatible artificial synapse and neuron for neuromorphic computing. In this thesis, laser-irradiation induced Ag nucleation and growth is reported. Which can control the volatility of RS memory. Experimentally, nucleation and growth of Ag nanoparticle composing conductive filament are induced by laser-irradiation, which increase the size of Ag nanoparticle. Therefore, the size and lifetime of the conductive filament are increased, and the memory characteristics change from volatile to non-volatile. Data retention time before and after laser irradiation increased from ~ 1ms to 10$^4$s. This means that the volatile of RS memory can be controlled through laser irradiation induced Ag nucleation and growth. This method to emulate synapse and neuron on a single device without further additional fabrication process would be breakthrough in the field of neuromorphic computing.