A Novel Approach to Identify the Carrier Transport Path and Its Correlation to the Current Variation in RRAM

For the first time, we proposed a physical model to link the macroscopic I-V characteristics with the material microstructure, based on the calculation of activation energy from first-principles calculations. According to the model, a new method for identifying the carrier transport path by using the calculated defect level was developed in RRAM. This developed method may be used to extract the carrier transport path of each operation and quantify the distribution of switching parameters. Based on the transport path, the intrinsic origin of current variation was identified in RRAM. The methods to improve the uniformity of switching parameters are also provided.