Improvement of Reliability by Using Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide Electrode for Ta₂O₅ Based Transparent Resistive Switching Memory Devices

Improvement of Reliability by Using Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide Electrode for Ta₂O₅ Based Transparent Resistive Switching Memory Devices

Purpose: Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) bottom electrode for $Ta_2O_5$ based RRAM was studied to apply for transparent resistive switching memory devices owing to its superior transparency, good conductivity and chemical stability. Methods: $ITO/Ta_2O_5/FTO$ (ITF) and $ITO/Ta_2O_5/Pt$ (ITP) devices were fabricated on glass and Si substrate, respectively. UV-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy was used to examine transparency of the ITF device and its band gap energy was determined by conventional Tauc plot. Electrical properties, such as electroforming and voltage-induced RS characteristics were measured and compared. Results: The device with an FTO bottom electrode showed good transparency (>80%), low forming voltage (~-2.5V), and reliable bipolar RS behavior. Whereas, the one with Pt electrode showed both bipolar and unipolar RS behaviors unstably with large forming voltage (~-6.5V). Conclusion: Transparent and conducting FTO can successfully realize a transparent RRAM device. It is concluded that FTO electrode may form a stable interface with $Ta_2O_5$ switching layer and plays as oxygen ion reservoir to supply oxygen vacancies, which eventually facilitates a stable operation of RRAM device.