Ox-RRAM Integration Concepts in 0.13µm IHP BiCMOS Technology
Besides fundamental research on resistive switching phenomena in dielectric thin film structures to identify suitable materials systems, IHP materials science researches develop in close collaboration with their colleagues from IHP technology department technology concepts to integrate Ox-RRAM NVM MIM structures in IHP 0.13µm BiCMOS technologies.
IHP 0.13 µm BiCMOS circuits consist of both bipolar junction transistors and MOS transistors on a single substrate, as shown in figure 8. The reason behind the hybridization is to combine the high-speed switching and high-output driving capabilities of the bipolar transistors with the low-power and high-density characteristics of the CMOS circuit [15,16].
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Figure 8: IHP 0.13 μm BiCMOS circuit indicating the BEOL position of NVM - MIM cells. |
To adopt BiCMOS technologies for upcoming markets in wireless communication applications, long-term challenges include attempts to increase the functionality of such circuits by the cost-effective integration of new devices, e.g. embedded high performance NVM cell concepts. Our research work in this project focuses on the back-end-of-line (BEOL) integration of non-volatile memory cells in form of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures. The BEOL position of such NVM MIM structures is indicated in Fig.8. The BEOL integration sets severe limits on the materials selection of the Ox-RRAM NVM cell compounds, in especial in terms of thermal budget, etching and contamination problems.