Self-selective van der Waals heterostructures for large scale memory array.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31320651.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11187-9 and PMC identifier 6639341.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The large-scale crossbar array is a promising architecture for hardware-amenable energy efficient three-dimensional memory and neuromorphic computing systems. While accessing a memory cell with negligible sneak currents remains a fundamental issue in the crossbar array architecture, up-to-date memory cells for large-scale crossbar arrays suffer from process and device integration (one selector one resistor) or destructive read operation (complementary resistive switching). Here, we introduce a self-selective memory cell based on hexagonal boron nitride and graphene in a vertical heterostructure. Combining non-volatile and volatile memory operations in the two hexagonal boron nitride layers, we demonstrate a self-selectivity of 10<sup>10</sup> with an on/off resistance ratio larger than 10<sup>3</sup>. The graphene layer efficiently blocks the diffusion of volatile silver filaments to integrate the volatile and non-volatile kinetics in a novel way. Our self-selective memory minimizes sneak currents on large-scale memory operation, thereby achieving a practical readout margin for terabit-scale and energy-efficient memory integration.