Analysis and Modeling of Electroforming in Transition Metal Oxide-Based Memristors and Its Impact on Crossbar Array Density

This letter proposes a compact physical model for electroforming in transition metal oxide memristors. The proposed model is based on oxide breakdown statistics and validated against experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations. The model is applied to the problem of area optimization of memristive crossbar array. It is shown that a tradeoff exists between the area of the cross-point and the area of the forming circuit. Reduction of the switching layer thickness and/or varying the local field enhancement may result in an appreciable reduction of the forming voltage which, in turn, alleviates the need for forming transistors and yields significant area reduction. On the other hand, these gains might be subdued by scaling the crossbar array itself. The proposed compact model is useful for designers wishing to explore circuit level impacts of forming.