Scaling behavior of oxide-based electrothermal threshold switching devices

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Solid-State Physics
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Transition metal oxides with insulator-to-metal transitions (IMT) and threshold switching are key for advanced memory devices.
• Selector devices are crucial components in crossbar non-volatile memory architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate and analyze the behavior of nanoscale selectors using TaOx, VO2, and NbO2.
• To understand how device characteristics are affected by scaling (diameter, thickness).
• To benchmark selector performance in a 1 selector/1 resistor (1S1R) memory cell.

Main Methods:

• Electrothermal modeling of nanoscale selectors.
• Simulation of device characteristics: threshold voltage (VTH), leakage current, ON-state temperature, and filament size.
• Benchmarking within a 1S1R cell using a phase change memory element.

Main Results:

• Extracted key device parameters as a function of selector dimensions.
• Quantified the impact of scaling on selector performance.
• Provided comparative analysis of TaOx, VO2, and NbO2 for selector applications.

Conclusions:

• Device performance is sensitive to scaling, informing design choices.
• The study aids in material selection and optimization for next-generation non-volatile memory selectors.