Improving high-resistance state uniformity and leakage current for polyimide-based resistive switching memory by rubbing post-treatment

In this study, a polyimide (PI) thin film is synthesized as a resistive switching layer for resistive random access memory (ReRAM) applications. The experimental results on polyimide thickness show that the Schottky effect between the interface of polyimide and metal thin films is the dominant mechanism in the high-resistance state (HRS). We, therefore, propose a rubbing post-treatment to improve the device performance. Results show that the uniformity and leakage of the memory in the HRS, as well as the power consumption in the low-resistance state (LRS), are improved. The power density of the set process is less than half after the rubbing post-treatment. Moreover, the power density of the reset process can be markedly decreased by about two orders of magnitude. In addition, the rubbed ReRAM exhibits a stable storage capability with seven orders of magnitude I-ON//I-OFF current ratio at 85 degrees C. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics