Resistive switching memristors: structures, materials, fabrication techniques, and process challenges for VLSI...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Memristors are popular nanodevices for nonvolatile memory, neuromorphic computing, and compute-in-memory systems.
• Their functionality relies on nonvolatile resistive switching, offering power savings and scalability.
• Memristive switching mechanisms include oxygen vacancy movement, electrochemical metallization, and valence change operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an extensive discussion on memristor structures, materials, and fabrication processes.
• To address challenges in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) scaling.
• To highlight the relationship between materials, processing, and device performance.

Main Methods:

• Review of various memristor structures and materials.
• Discussion of fabrication processes like photolithography, CVD, sputtering, EBD, and ALD.
• Analysis of testing procedures and encountered problems in VLSI scaling.

Main Results:

• Special attention is paid to switching phenomena, defect management, interfaces, and conductive filament movement.
• Fabrication variability significantly influences memristor performance, endurance, and reliability.
• Improvements in materials science, device architectures, and fabrication are crucial.

Conclusions:

• Further progress in reliable and scalable memristor technology requires advancements in materials, fabrication, and integration.
• Understanding defect management and interface properties is key to enhancing memristor reliability.
• Memristor technology holds potential for CMOS-compatible circuits, but open issues remain.