Degradation characteristics of resistive switching memory devices correlated with electric field induced ion-migration effect of anode

The electrode effect of resistive switching memory devices on resistive switching behaviors is studied. Compared to TiN- or Ti-electrode devices, significantly reduced switching parameters such as resistance-ratio of high- and low-resistance states and set-voltage are observed experimentally in the Al-electrode devices when a positive voltage bias is applied to the Al-electrode during the forming process. An electric-field induced metal-ion-migration effect is proposed to elucidate the observed electrode dependence of the resistive switching behaviors in the resistive switching memory devices. The further measured data identify the validity of the proposed mechanism.