Thermal and Signal Integrity Analysis of Novel 3D Crossbar Resistive Random Access Memories

The resistive random access memory (RRAM) device is a fundamental building block of novel nonvolatile memories. This paper addresses the design of suitable 3D crossbar structures, in view of their monolithic integration into large memory modules. In fact, a full 3D electro-thermal model is here adopted to simulate and study the thermal and signal integrity of a 1Diode-1Resistor RRAM x-point crossbar structure. These analysis are carried out by considering different RESET biasing schemes and heatsink locations. In addition, two different materials are considered for realizing the contact electrode material wires of the 3D crossbar: Nickel and/or Carbon nanotubes. In particular, we investigate the worst-case scenario in the electro-thermal analysis by comparing the performance results in terms of resistive voltage drop and of temperature distribution. The achieved simulation results demonstrate that the use of carbon interconnects not only provides excellent signal and thermal integrity performances, but also enables the simplest solutions for an effective biasing scheme.