Low-voltage ultrafast nonvolatile memory via direct charge injection through a threshold resistive-switching layer

Abstract

The explosion in demand for massive data processing and storage requires revolutionary memory technologies featuring ultrahigh speed, ultralong retention, ultrahigh capacity and ultralow energy consumption. Although a breakthrough in ultrafast floating-gate memory has been achieved very recently, it still suffers a high operation voltage (tens of volts) due to the Fowler–Nordheim tunnelling mechanism. It is still a great challenge to realize ultrafast nonvolatile storage with low operation voltage. Here we propose a floating-gate memory with a structure of MoS2/hBN/MoS2/graphdiyne oxide/WSe2, in which a threshold switching layer, graphdiyne oxide, instead of a dielectric blocking layer in conventional floating-gate memories, is used to connect the floating gate and control gate. The volatile threshold switching characteristic of graphdiyne oxide allows the direct charge injection from control gate to floating gate by applying a nanosecond voltage pulse (20 ns) with low magnitude (2 V), and restricts the injected charges in floating gate for a long-term retention (10 years) after the pulse. The high operation speed and low voltage endow the device with an ultralow energy consumption of 10 fJ. These results demonstrate a new strategy to develop next-generation high-speed low-energy nonvolatile memory.

Recent progress in neuromorphic and memory devices based on graphdiyne

“…(g) Retention characteristics of the memory at state-1 and state-0 with a linear extrapolation to 10 years. Reprinted from [ 109 ] with permission; © 2022, Springer Nature Ltd.…”

“…In order to obtain symmetric writing/erasing speed in nanosecond timescale, Chen and co-workers further modified the architecture of the floating-gate memory as illustrated in Figure 9(d) [ 109 ]. Distinct from conventional floating-gate memory, this device utilized a threshold-switching (TS) layer, i.e.…”

“…Reprinted from [ 103 ] with permission; © 2021, Springer. Reprinted from [ 100 ] with permission; © 2021, Elsevier Inc. Reprinted from [ 109 ] with permission; © 2022, Springer Nature Ltd. Reprinted from [ 105 ] with permission; © 2021 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. Reprinted from [ 104 ] with permission; © 2020, American Chemical Society.…”

Improved resistive switching performance and realized electric control of exchange bias in a NiO/HfO2 bilayer structure

“…Memristors, 1 normally in the form of two terminal devices exhibiting a resistive switching (RS) effect, whose resistance status depends on the electrical stimulation history it has undergone, have attracted much attention due to their great advantages in storage such as rapid read and write speed, lengthy retention time, low power consumption, high-density 3D integration 2–4 and potential applications in neuromorphic computing, hardware security applications, non-von Neumann architecture-based memory and cloud data, etc. 5–9 The RS effects of a large number of oxides, such as TiO 2 , 10–12 Ta 2 O 5 , 13–15 Al 2 O 3 16,17 and HfO 2 , 18,19 have been widely studied.…”

Metal–Organic Frameworks–Based Memristors: Materials, Devices, and Applications

“…Meanwhile, the fabrication process of memristors is compatible with CMOS process technology [19], allowing it to be large cross-bar arrays easily and exhibit a size scalability. More excellent properties of memristors can be realized by changing or adjusting the materials of resistive switching layer [20][21][22][23][24][25].…”