Gamma Irradiation in HfO<i>ₓ</i>-Based Resistive Switching Memory With Mitigated Performance Degradation Using Ruthenium Electrode

In this study, we have presented the radiation immunity of HfOx-based resistive switching devices that meet the requirement for qualified manufacturers list verification (QMLV) and radiation hardness assurance (RHA), which potentially support low-earth-orbit (LEO), medium-earth-orbit, and geosynchronous orbit missions. Specifically, the memory window of the postradiation devices is increased by <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 1.5\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> when compared to preradiation devices, enabling the capability of the 1000-times endurance and 10-year retention by integrating ruthenium (Ru) as a photon-absorb sink to reduce the switching layer damage caused by overheating. These results presented that the optimized HfOx-based resistive switching memory is not only suitable for low-power consumption, high-density memory, and LEO applications but also provides a development path to realize programmable computing chip tolerance in harsh radiation environments.