Fatigue effects by accumulative pulse application on bipolar RRAM devices

A. SCHULMAN; C. ACHA

San Martín

Workshop; EPICO 2012; 2012

CNEA

We have studied the effects of accumulating electrical pulses of the same polarity on the resistance state of interfaces made by sputtering a metal (Au, Pt) on top of the surface of a cuprate superconductorYBa2Cu3O7 - d (YBCO). We show that theevolution of resistance for the high and the low resistance state depends logarithmically on the number of accumulated pulses. We have established a criterion to determine the failure of a device based on the saturation of the relative resistance variation between the high and the low resistance states upon applying pulses of increasing voltage. This criterion is also useful to compare different devices and to determine their optimal working conditions. Our results show the similarity between the physics of the diffusion ofoxygen vacancies induced by electrical pulses and the propagation of defects in materials subjected to repeated mechanical stress.