Total-ionizing-dose effects on the resistance switching characteristics of chalcogenide programmable metallization cells

Programmable metallization cells (PMCs) are emerging ReRAM devices exhibiting resistance switching due to cation transport in a solid-state electrolyte and redox reactions at the electrodes. Their non-volatility and low power requirements have led to increased interest in their development for non-volatile memory applications. Investigation of the total dose response of PMCs will contribute to our understanding of radiation induced effects in these novel memory devices as well as assess their suitability for use in ionizing radiation environments. This work investigates the impact of total ionizing dose on the switching characteristic of silver doped Ge₃₀Se₇₀ PMC memory devices. The results obtained show that the resistance switching characteristic of these cells which use a solid state electrolyte based on Ge₃₀ Se₇₀ is not affected by a total dose exposure of up to 10 Mrad(Ge₃₀ Se₇₀).