In this review of experimental studies, the retention time and endurance of memristor RRAM memory elements based on reversible resistive switching in oxide dielectrics are studied. The influence of external parameters—switching pulses and ambient temperature—as well as internal factors—evolution of the concentration of oxygen vacancies in the filament region, the material, structure; the thickness of the active dielectric layer, material of metal electrodes on the long-term stability of high resistance state (HRS) and the low resistance state (LRS) of the memristor is discussed.
Low temperature etching of organosilicate low-k dielectrics in CF3Br and CF4 plasmas is studied. The chemical composition of pristine and etched low-k films was measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Reduction of plasma-induced damage at low process temperature is observed. It is shown that the plasma damage reduction is related to protective effects of accumulated reaction products (CHxFyBrz, SiBrx after CF3Br, and CFx polymers after CF4 plasma). The reaction products could then be removed by thermal annealing for the pores to become empty. In the case of CF4 plasma, the thickness of CFx polymer increases with the temperature reduction, which is measured by ellipsometry. This polymer layer leads to a strong decrease in the diffusion rate of fluorine atoms and, as a consequence, to reduction of plasma-induced damage. Bromine containing reaction products are less efficient for low-k surface protection against the plasma damage.
Surfactant-templated porous organosilicate glass low-k films have been deposited by using a tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTEOS) mixture with different ratios and Brij® 30 surfactant. The deposited films contain different concentrations of terminal methyl groups that are proportional to the MTEOS concentration. Increasing the methyl group concentration by changing the TEOS/MTEOS ratio decreases the open porosity, k-value, and Young's modulus and increases the mean pore radius, although the template concentration was kept constant. The plasma etch rate well correlates with the number of fluorine atoms penetrated into pores. Plasma damage by fluorine radicals depends on the carbon concentration in the films. It can be reduced by 60% when the carbon concentration in the films exceeds 10 at. % as measured by XPS (the films deposited with the TEOS/MTEOS ratio of 40/60). Damage to the dielectrics associated with exposure to vacuum ultraviolet photons is reduced by more than 70% for the same samples.
Application of micro-Raman spectroscopy for the monitoring of quality of high-k (h-k) dielectric protective layer deposition onto the surface of a nanowire (NW) chip has been demonstrated. A NW chip based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures, protected with a layer of high-k dielectric ((h-k)-SOI-NW chip), has been employed for highly sensitive detection of microRNA (miRNA) associated with oncological diseases. The protective dielectric included a 2-nm-thick Al2O3 surface layer and a 8-nm-thick HfO2 layer, deposited onto a silicon SOI-NW chip. Such a chip had increased time stability upon operation in solution, as compared with an unprotected SOI-NW chip with native oxide. The (h-k)-SOI-NW biosensor has been employed for the detection of DNA oligonucleotide (oDNA), which is a synthetic analogue of miRNA-21 associated with oncological diseases. To provide biospecificity of the detection, the surface of (h-k)-SOI-NW chip was modified with oligonucleotide probe molecules (oDVA probes) complementary to the sequence of the target biomolecule. Concentration sensitivity of the (h-k)-SOI-NW biosensor at the level of DL~10−16 M has been demonstrated.
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