The Effect of Humidity on Reducing Forming Voltage in Conductive-Bridge Random Access Memory With an Alloy Electrode

This letter investigates Au 30 Ag 70 (alloy electrode)/SiO 2 /TiN conductive-bridge random access memory (CBRAM) to verify the influence of ambient conditions on forming voltage ( \text{V}_{\textsf {F}} ) and the location of galvanic reaction. Previous literature demonstrates that the galvanic reaction in CBRAM with an alloy electrode results in a lower \text{V}_{\textsf {F}} . In this work, a higher environmental H 2 O concentration results in a decrease in \text{V}_{\textsf {F}} . From this change in \text{V}_{\textsf {F}} , we infer that environmental H 2 O concentration influences the amount of galvanic reaction. Moreover, we verify the location of the galvanic reaction by varying electrode thickness. Finally, we propose a physical model to explain our observations.