Comparison of diverse resistive switching characteristics and demonstration of transitions among them in Al-incorporated HfO2-based resistive switching memory for neuromorphic applications

Abstract

Diverse resistive switching behaviors are observed in the Pt/HfAlO_x/TiN memory device depending on the compliance current, the sweep voltage amplitude, and the bias polarity. We extensively compare three types of resistive switching characteristics in a Pt/HfAlO_x/TiN device in terms of endurance, ON/OFF ratio, linear conductance update, and read margin in a cross-point array structure for synaptic device applications. The bipolar resistive switching under positive set and negative reset shows better linear synaptic weight updates due to gradual switching than the bipolar resistive switching at the opposite polarity. The complementary resistive switching shows a higher read margin due to the current suppression at a low voltage regime. In addition, the potentiation and the depression can be adjusted at the same voltage polarity for a hardware neuromorphic system. Finally, we demonstrate the transition between bipolar resistive switching and complementary resistive switching, which could provide flexibility for different applications.