Heating power lowering by downscaling the cell dimensions in nanoscale filamentary resistive switching devices

In this work, we theoretically investigate the size dependence of the heat process in thermochemical filamentary resistive switching memories of crossbar structure. The equivalent heat resistance of the system increases with the device dimensions scaled down because of the size-dependent electric and thermal conductivity and geometry configurations. The higher equivalent heat resistance by diminishing the cell sizes induces an enhanced self-heating effect of the filament. It promises lower operation voltage and heating power to trigger the thermally activated dissolution of the filament in RESET process. These results strengthen the advantage of filamentary memories in lateral and longitudinal scaling down technologies where less power consumption has long been urged. Our results also show the opposite dependence of the driven electric field on the linewidth and thickness of the device.