Mechanism of electrical shorting failure mode in resistive switching

摘要

The electrical shorting failure mode in resistive switching is characterized by the inability to increase the resistance electrically and is one of the most common failures observed in these devices. We show that vacancy accumulation at the inert electrode is a likely cause of the electrical shorting failure mode. A detailed description is provided of the specific effect of injected oxygen vacancies from the reactive electrode and from the secondary reservoir that is formed at the inert electrode during an electrical shorting failure. We present quantitative theoretical and experimental analysis of the failure mechanism while suggesting approaches and conditions for prevention and recovery. The approach also provides an analytical description of sub-saturation vacancy injection during normal operation while experimentally showing the range of conditions where this behavior dominates.