Review abstract
Nature Materials 6, 833 - 840 (2007)
doi:10.1038/nmat2023
Subject Categories: Electronic materials | Molecular electronics
Nanoionics-based resistive switching memories
Rainer Waser1,2 & Masakazu Aono3,4
Abstract
Many metal–insulator–metal systems show electrically induced resistive switching effects and have therefore been proposed as the basis for future non-volatile memories. They combine the advantages of Flash and DRAM (dynamic random access memories) while avoiding their drawbacks, and they might be highly scalable. Here we propose a coarse-grained classification into primarily thermal, electrical or ion-migration-induced switching mechanisms. The ion-migration effects are coupled to redox processes which cause the change in resistance. They are subdivided into cation-migration cells, based on the electrochemical growth and dissolution of metallic filaments, and anion-migration cells, typically realized with transition metal oxides as the insulator, in which electronically conducting paths of sub-oxides are formed and removed by local redox processes. From this insight, we take a brief look into molecular switching systems. Finally, we discuss chip architecture and scaling issues.
- Institut für Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik 2, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany
- Institut für Festkörperforschung/CNI—Center of Nanoelectronics for Information Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- Nanomaterials Laboratories, National Institute for Material Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
- ICORP/Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
Correspondence to: Rainer Waser1,2 e-mail: r.waser@fz-juelich.de
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