Modeling of Read-Disturb-Induced SET-State Current Degradation in a Tungsten Oxide Resistive Switching Memory

We characterize SET-state current degradation induced by read operations in a tungsten oxide resistive memory cell. The current degradation exhibits a two-stage evolution. In the second stage, the current decline follows inverse power-law dependence on cumulative read-disturb time. We present an analytical model to derive the inverse power law. Our model includes oxygen ion activation, mobile oxygen ion hopping, and the reduction of oxygen vacancy density by re-oxidation. Voltage and temperature effects on read-disturb-induced degradation are characterized for comparison with the model. Our results show that the power factor in the inverse power law has exponential dependence on a read voltage.