Improved reliability of Ti/ZrN/Pt resistive switching memory cells using hydrogen postannealing

The authors investigated the effects of hydrogen postannealing on data retention and set/reset current variation in a Ti/ZrN/Pt resistive switching memory cell. Annealing the Ti/ZrN/Pt sample in a N2 + H2 ambient gas versus a N2 ambient gas reduced the set currents from 10.4 to 4.1 mA and the reset currents from 1.2 to 0.2 μA, whereas the current ratio increased from ∼9 × 103 to ∼2 × 104. In addition, current variations in the set and reset states decrease at temperatures of 25 and 85 °C (>10yr) due to reduction of the interface trap by hydrogen passivation effects.