Modeling of the forming operation in HfO2-base resistive switching memories

This paper presents a novel physical description of the forming process in HfO2-based resistive switching memory devices (RRAM). By taking into consideration a grain boundary-driven trap-assisted electron transport and accounting for the local power dissipation and the associated local temperature increase, which assists defect generation, the model reproduces quantitatively the evolution of the leakage current observed during the forming operation in the RRAM devices. The model statistical capabilities allow reproducing the statistical distribution of the forming voltage, thus providing a powerful tool for the assessment of the feasibility of these devices for high-capacity non-volatile memory mass storage applications