Abstract
TaN/ZrTiO x Pt metal-insulator-metal structure was employed as the platform to evaluate the eligibility for antifuse one-time programmable (OTP) memory applications, and the impact of O 2 plasma on device performance was also discussed. Owing to the oxygen radicals that enhance the dielectric integrity, the voltage for state switching increases with O 2 plasma treatment. Memory cells without plasma treatment demonstrate promising characteristics for OTP memory applications in terms of a low dc switching voltage of 2 V, high programming speed of 60 ns, high read endurance up to 10 6 reading cycles, and desirable retention time and low switching power density of 6.4 mW/cm 2 . The memory cell technology not only exhibits the prominent performance which is advantageous over other dielectrics reported in the literature, but it also possesses the capability to from stackable 3-D architecture. © 1980-2012 IEEE.