Trade‐Off Between Data Retention and Switching Speed in Resistive Switching ReRAM Devices

Memristive switching devices are promising for future data storage and neuromorphic computing applications to overcome the scaling and power dissipation limits of classical CMOS technology. Many groups have engineered bilayer oxide structures to enhance the switching performance especially in terms of retention and device reliability. Here, introducing retention enhancement oxide layers into the memristive stack is shown to result in a reduction of the switching speed not only by changing the voltage and temperature distribution in the cell, but also by influencing the rate‐limiting‐step of the switching kinetics. In particular, it is demonstrated that by introducing a retention enhancement layer into resistive switching SrTiO3 devices, the kinetics are no longer determined by the interface exchange reaction between switching oxide and active electrode, but depend on the oxygen ion migration in the additional interface layer. Thus, the oxygen migration barrier in the additional layer determines the switching speed. This trade‐off between retention and switching speed is of general importance for rational engineering of memristive devices.