Publication date: 24th July 2026
Sputtering is a thin film deposition technique which is employed for a variety of electronic materials. It allows for large-area deposition with nanometer precision, which is promising for many emerging applications, especially for fabricating memory devices with back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible process temperatures. In this talk, I will show our work on resistive random-access memory (RRAM) devices as well as phase-change memory (PCM) devices, which both rely on sputtering for the deposition of the active switching materials. In the context of RRAM, we have recently started to investigate semiconducting oxides, as opposed to the commonly employed insulating oxides (e.g., HfOx, TaOx). I will first discuss our perspective on opportunities which arise when choosing semiconducting oxides to realize RRAM devices [1]. I will then show our results using InGaZnO as the active switching material and how different surface treatments influence the switching behavior of our devices (Rudrapal et al., Advanced Electronic Materials, accepted). We can tune the device behavior between forming-free operation or gradual and abrupt switching. Thereafter, I will switch to PCM and discuss how electrothermal engineering is key for energy efficient operation. I will showcase how we combined several approaches to obtain record-low reset current density in superlattice PCM devices [2]. Lastly, I will dive deeper into the structural properties and intermixing in common chalcogenide superlattices used in PCM and predict how such intermixing may influence device behavior [3]. These aspects are important to understand and further optimize the superlattice technology in the future. Overall, both types of devices (RRAM and PCM) provide promise for embedded memory as well as in-memory and neuromorphic computing. As discussed in my talk, new material innovations can provide opportunities to engineer important device parameters.
Funding from Volkswagen Foundation within the funding line NEXT - Neuromorphic Computing (grant no. 0071147). Support by the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) and Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF) in part by member companies of the Stanford Non-volatile Memory Technology Research Initiative (NMTRI). Funding from the Swiss NSF Early Postdoc Mobility fellowship (grant P2EZP2_181619) and the Beijing Institute of Collaborative Innovation (BICI).
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