Amit Kumar et al.

/ (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES

Vol No. 1, Issue No. 2, 118 - 122

Nonvolatile resistance memory switching in

polycrystalline ZnO thin films grown by RF
magnetron sputtering
Amit Kumar Manoj Kumar Beer Pal Singh
Institute of Engineering & Technology, Department of Electrical, Electronic & Department of Physics,
North Extn., M.I.A. Alwar-301030, Information Engineering, Toyohashi Ch. Charan Singh University,
Rajasthan, India University of Technology, Tempaku- Meerut – 250 004,
amitpanwar889@gmail.com cho, Hibariga-oka1-1, Toyohashi-441- U. P. India
8580, Japan drbeerpal@gmail.com
Panwarm72@yahoo.com

Abstract (poly-N-vinylcarbazole), [3]. However, bulk and

In this paper, the resistance switching
characteristics of polycrystalline ZnO thin film
were investigated for non-volatile memory. ZnO
thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering on
Ti/SiO2/Si substrate were highly resistive and c-
ES
axis oriented. The ZnO thin film showed reliable
and repeated switching behavior under small
voltage. Resistance ratios of the high resistance
state to low resistance state were obtained to be
several orders of magnitude up to 20 cycles. It is
believed that this resistance change is due to the
difference in point defect density. Both the low and
high resistance states showed linear log current
versus log voltage characteristics in the low
voltage. The observed results were examined on
A
the basis of filamentary conductions with the
contribution of local Joule heating effect. The
achieved characteristics of the resistive switching
in ZnO thin films provide a possible solution for
nonvolatile memory applications.
IJ
T
thin films of transition-metal oxides (TMO)
materials, such as TiO2 [4], NiO [5], ZrO [6]
Nb2O5 [7] and ZnO [8] are also known to show a
resistive switching behavior. In comparison with
ternary or quaternary oxide semiconductor films
such as doped (SrZrO3) or (Pr,Ca)MnO3, binary
metal oxides have the advantage of a simple
fabrication process and are more compatible with
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
processing [9]. Note that TMO materials have
gained considerable interest because of its
excellent material properties. The wide bandgap
(3.3 eV) and highly transparent in visible region
make TMO materials a potential candidate to
realize a fully transparent RRAM (TRRAM)
device which could be implemented in various
electronic system. The TRRAM has great
feasibility for novel electronic applications in the
near future.
Among the known TMO materials, which have

Keywords: ZnO thin films; RF sputtering;
Nonvolatile resistive memory switching
1. Introduction
Resistance switching random access memory
(RRAM) has drawn considerable attention for the
application in non-volatile memory elements in
semiconductor memory devices. The resistive
switching phenomenon, which signifies a drastic
change in resistance in some materials, has
reportedly been found in ferromagnetic oxide
materials (Pr1−xCaxMnO3), [1] doped perovskite
oxide materials (SrZrO3), [2] and organic materials
been currently investigated for the development of
RRAM, more recently ZnO has emerged showing
great potential due to its abundant availability in
nature, rugged structural and chemical behaviour,
highly evolved growth technologies, nontoxic,
inexpensive and compatibility with complementary
metal oxide semiconductor technology. ZnO is II–
VI n-type semiconductor with direct and wide band
gap of about 3.3 eV at room temperature. ZnO
films show good optical transmittance in the
visible and near-infrared region.
Its electrical properties can be tailored in a broad
range from metal like to insulator like by suitable
impurity doping. Thus, it is expected to achieve a
fully transparent RRAM based on ZnO [10].

ISSN: 2230-7818 @ 2010 http://www.ijaest.iserp.org. All rights Reserved. Page 118

 Amit Kumar et al. / (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Vol No. 1, Issue No. 2, 118 - 122

In this article, a report on the resistance switching 1(b). The grain size determined from SEM was in
characteristics of highly resistive ZnO thin films the range of 25–30 nm.
grown by RF magnetron sputtering is presented. It
is demonstrated that the ZnO thin film shows

(002) ZnO

(002) Ti
reliable and reproducible switching phenomenon.

(102) Ti
Si
Intensity (a. u.)
2. Experimental Details

ZnO thin films on Ti/SiO2/n-Si were grown by RF

(110) ZnO
magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition
was carried out in a vacuum chamber evacuated to
a base pressure of 2 × 10-6 Torr. ZnO thin films

Si
were grown at rf power of 100 W. During the film
deposition substrate temperature of 300 oC and the
20 30 40 50 60
deposition time of 5 min was kept constant. High

T
purity O2 (99.999%) was used as the sputtering gas 2Deg.)
to achieve highly resistive ZnO thin films. The
partial pressure was adjusted by the use of
electronic mass flow meters and total working
pressure was fixed at 10 mTorr. The thickness of
ES
the resulting ZnO thin film was estimated to be
around 150 nm. The ZnO powder was mixed for 24
h by using ball milling. The mixture was grinded to
a fine powder and pressed into a pellet by cold
isostatic press at 800 Kg-cm-2, and the pellet was
sintered at 1000 oC for 4 h. The pellet obtained was
used as the target for preparation of ZnO thin films.
A Riggaku (Japan, D/max-II with CuK radiation)
x-ray diffraction (XRD) system was employed to
A
study crystallographic orientation of the films.
Both top and bottom contacts were deposited using
RF sputtering technique. The direction of current
flow was kept from top to bottom electrode and the
measurements were carried out in voltage Figure 1. (a) XRD spectrum (b) SEM image of the ZnO thin film grown on
Ti/SiO2/Si substrate
sweeping mode.
IJ

During the I-V measurements of resistive

3. Results and Discussions switching, Ti bottom electrode was grounded and
positive bias voltage was applied to the top
Figure 1 (a) shows XRD pattern of the ZnO thin electrode. The resistance of the ZnO thin film was
film grown on Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. In the present measured through room temperature I–V
study, the ZnO thin film revealed polycrystalline measurements. The resistive switching
structure. The XRD spectrum exhibited (002) characteristic of the devices are investigated and is
diffraction peak of ZnO film, indicating preferred demonstrated in Fig. 2.
highly c-axis orientation. In addition, Si and Ti
peaks also emerged in the spectrum. The full
widths at half maximum of the (002) peak of ZnO
thin film was found to be 0.25o. SEM image
showed low density packing of grains with a
uniform dimension, which is illustrated in Fig.

ISSN: 2230-7818 @ 2010 http://www.ijaest.iserp.org. All rights Reserved. Page 119

 Amit Kumar et al. / (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Vol No. 1, Issue No. 2, 118 - 122

3.0x10
-2 I–V characteristics at high voltages. The log I-log V
-2
characteristic of ZnO film in the HRS is shown in
2.5x10 Reset
Fig. 3 (b). As is seen from figure that the I-V
characteristic in HRS is also reveal linear behavior
-2
2.0x10 Set
Current (mA)

1.5x10
-2 at very low voltage which is governed by Ohm’s
-2
law. However at slight high voltages, the I-V
1.0x10
characteristic showed nonlinear behaviour. This
5.0x10
-3
nonlinear I-V characteristic in the high voltage
0.0 region can be explained by the Poole–Frenkel (PF)
-3
emission theory. Since the ZnO thin film is grown
-5.0x10
0 1 2 3 4 5 at low-temperature generally contain large number
Voltage (V) of point and structural defects which may act as
carrier traps during the conduction process. These
Figure 2. Typical I–V characteristics of ZnO thin film showing resistive results are consistent with those of a previous
switching report that investigated the characteristics of

T
RRAM with ZnO thin film [14].
The activation of the devices as a nonvolatile
memory requires a forming process with current LRS
compliance of 7 mA in the present work, wherein
the ZnO thin film is transformed from its initial -2
10
high resistance state (HRS) to low resistance state
(LRS) on application of an external bias voltage
(3.0 ~3.5 V) known as the initial forming voltage.
ES Current (A)

The initial forming voltage of 3.0 ~ 3 5 V in the

current study is favourably comparable with the -3
10
recently reported forming voltages in ZnO films
and much smaller than those reported for other
metal oxides [11, 12]. 0.13534 0.36788 1
After the initial forming process, the voltage swept Voltage (V)
A
from 0 to 2.0 V, A sudden drop in current was
observed at a voltage of ~ 1.6 V indicating abrupt
increase in the resistance of ZnO thin film and
switching from LRS (OFF state) reached into HRS HRS
(ON state). When the voltage reswept from zero to -2
10
positive voltage, an increase in current was
IJ
Current (mA)

observed at ~ 3 V and ZnO thin film switched back

to the LRS state and nonvolatile switching was
achieved.
The plot of the log I-log V of the LRS in the device
is shown in Fig. 3 (a). It is seen from figure that the
log I-log V characteristic is linear with a slope of -3
10
approximately 0.9, indicating conduction behavior
Ohmic transport. However, at higher bias voltages 1

(> 0 9 V), the I–V curve showed deviation from the Voltage (V)
linearity, which may be due to the heating induced
increase in the resistance conducting filaments
Figure 3. Log–log plot of I–V characteristics of ZnO film in (a) LRS and (b)
before the onset of rupture process due to excess HRS
heating, which leads the film to HRS. Kim et al.
[13] have also observed such deviation from linear

ISSN: 2230-7818 @ 2010 http://www.ijaest.iserp.org. All rights Reserved. Page 120

 Amit Kumar et al. / (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Figure 4 shows the resistances of the ZnO thin film
in the two well determined states of LRS and HRS
were measured for different switching cycles to
study the device survival. It is noticed from the
figure that the resistance in ZnO thin film in LRS
was observed a stable switching property while,
there is a slight fluctuation of resistance in the HRS
during 20 cycles. Other group has also been
observed large fluctuations in the resistance of
ZnO thin film in the HRS with switching cycles
[11]. It is believed that the results show a
significant reliable performance of the device for
nonvolatile memory application.
10
4
Resistance (ohm)
HRS
10
3
2
10
0 5 10
Switching Cycle
Figure 4 switching cycling characteristics for the HRS and LRS
A
Resistance switching mechanism in ZnO thin film
is not yet clearly understood. One of the feasible
models for the formation of linear conducting paths
in various metal oxide films is the formation of
conducting filaments. Conducting filaments are a
IJ
variety of extended defects which can be created
by the alignment of the pre-existing structural
defects such as oxygen vacancies, Zn interstitials
and dislocations etc along the grain boundaries of
the polycrystalline films due to the presence of a
strong electric field during the initial part of the
formation process. In the initial forming process,
tiny and less conductive filaments are formed
through the defects of the ZnO thin film. The
filaments become stronger and more conductive
with further increase in voltage and current flow
suddenly increases manifolds resulting in a
transition to the LRS. Hence, the conduction in the
LRS can be expressed by Ohmic behavior. In the
reset process case, it is believed that the current
ISSN: 2230-7818
Vol No. 1, Issue No. 2, 118 - 122
flow through the filaments is large enough so that
the most of the conductive filaments are disrupted
via the Joule heating effect and bringing the
material in HRS. However, some conductive
filaments still remain, and they can contribute to
the conduction, the Ohmic conduction, in the HRS
at a low voltage region. Though, at high voltage
region, the conduction behavior is dominated by
Poole–Frenkel emission, which is closely related to
the defects in the ZnO thin films. It is well
recognized that the extended defects play an
important role in the formation of the conductive
filament and stable resistive switching. ZnO thin
film has a polycrystalline structure in this study as
is shown in Fig. 1 (a), structural defects specially
T
grain boundaries may provide a considerable
contribution to the formation of the conductive
filament and the stable resistive switching.
4. Conclusion
LRS
ES Highly resistive and c-axis oriented polycrystalline
ZnO thin films were grown on Ti/SiO2/Si substrate
by RF magnetron sputtering technique for studied
their resistive switching behaviour. The ZnO thin
15 20 film based device exhibits reliable resistive
switching properties such as low switching voltage
and switching cycling. The I-V measurements are
closely related to conductive filament formation
during voltage application. Hence, the observed
results offer the possibility of realizing transparent
nonvolatile memory devices.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr. J. P.
Kar for valuable discussion and comments.
Reference
[1] S. Q. Liu, N. J. Wu, and A. Ignatiev, Appl. Phys. Lett.
vol. 76, pp. 2749-2751, March 2000.
[2] Y. Watanabe, J. G. Bednorz, A. Bietsch, Ch. Gerber, D.
Widmer, A. Beck, and S. J. Wind, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 78,
pp. 3738-3740, April 2001.
[3] Y. S. Lai, C. H. Tu, D. L. Kwong, and J. S. Chen, Appl.
Phys. Lett. vol. 87, pp. 122101-122101-3, September 2005.
[4] B. J. Choi, D. S. Jeong, S. K. Kim, S. Choi, J. H. Oh, C.
Rohde, H. J. Kim, C. S. Hwang, K. Szot, R. Waser, B.
Reichenberg, and S. Tiedke, J. Appl. Phys. vol. 98 pp.
033715-033715-10 August 2005.
@ 2010 http://www.ijaest.iserp.org. All rights Reserved. Page 121
 Amit Kumar et al. / (IJAEST) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Vol No. 1, Issue No. 2, 118 - 122

[5] S. Seo, M. J. Lee, D. H. Seo, E. J. Jeoung, D. S. Suh, Y.

S. Joung, I. K. Yoo, I. R. Hwang, S. H. Kim, I. S. Byun, J. S.
Kim, J. S. Choi, and B. H. Park, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 85,
pp. 5655-5657, December 2004.
[6] S. Kim, I. Byun, I. Hwang, J. Kim, J. Choi, B. H. Park, S.
Seo, M. J. Lee, D. H. Seo, D. S. Suh, Y. S. Joung, and I. K.
Yoo, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 2 vol. 44, pp. L345-L347,
February 2005.
[7] H. J. Sim, D. H. Choi, D. S. Lee, S. A. Seo, M. J. Lee, I.
K. Yoo, and H. S. Hwang, IEEE Electron Device Lett. vol.
26, pp. 292-294, May 2005.
[8] M. Villafuerte, S. P. Heluani, G. Juarez, G. Simonelli, G.
Braunstein, and S. Duhalde, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 90, pp.
052105-052105-3, January 2007.
[9] X. Wu, P. Zhou, J. Li, L. Y. Chen, H. B. Lv, Y. Y. Lin,
and T. A. Tang, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 90, pp. 183507-
183507-3, May 2007.
[10] L. M. Kukreja, A. K. Das and P. Miisra, Bull. Mater.

T
Sci., vol. 32, pp. 247-252, June 2009.
[11] W -Y Chang, Y -C Lai, T -B Wu, S -F Wang, F. Chen
and M –J Tsai, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 92, pp. 022110-
022110-3, January 2008.
[12] H -Y Lee, P -S Chen, C -C Wang, S. Maikap, P -J
Tzeng, C -H Lin, L -S Lee and M –J Tsai, Jap. J. Appl. Phys.
vol. 46, pp. 2157-2163, April 2007.
ES
[13] K-M Kim and C-S Hwang, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 94 pp.
122109-122109-3 March 2009.
A
IJ

ISSN: 2230-7818 @ 2010 http://www.ijaest.iserp.org. All rights Reserved. Page 122