The Effects of Si Doping on the Endurance and Stability Improvement of AlN-Based Resistive Random Access Memory

Aluminum nitride (AlN) based resistance random access memory (RRAM) devices with TiN/AlN/Pt metal–insulator–metal (MIM) structures were fabricated in this study. To improve the characteristics of the RRAM such as high endurance operation and high resistance switching stability, silicon dopants were doped into AlN films by using the cosputtering method. Then, the influence of the concentration of silicon doping on the bipolar switching characteristics of AlN-based RRAM was studied. The research results show that the on/off ratio of the device after silicon doping has increased from 10 to about 1000, the set voltage has reduced from 2.5 to 1.9 V, and the reset voltage has reduced from −1.5 to −1.1 V. The stability of resistance switching (RS) is also improved. Besides, it is found that silicon doping helps to lower the instability caused by the oxygen ions and increased the endurance cycle (>2.5 × 106 cycles). Based on the results, the detailed mechanisms were also investigated systematically.