Radiation hardness of ovonic threshold switches under swift heavy-ion irradiation

Acting as non-linear selector devices, ovonic threshold switches (OTS) are essential for suppressing sneak-path currents in large-scale crossbar arrays, thereby enabling scalable and energy-efficient integration of resistive memories. As conventional transistors approach their scalability limits, OTS technology offers a promising pathway toward reliable and high-performance memory systems of the future. Furthermore, conventional semiconductor transistors, are known to be highly susceptible to radiation-induced effects leading to function failure. In this study, we present two chalcogenide-based OTS that exhibit pronounced radiation hardness under high-fluence irradiation with GeV gold ions in the electronic energy loss regime. As demonstrated by X-ray diffraction analysis, the ion irradiation does not induce detectable structural changes and the amorphous configuration of the OTS remains preserved. A comparison of the electrical behavior of virgin, initialized and cycled OTS before and after irradiation shows that threshold-switching characteristics and overall functionality remain largely unaffected.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Published
2026-09-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2026.166333
Primary Topic
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
Type
article
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article

Radiation hardness of ovonic threshold switches under swift heavy-ion irradiation

Eszter Piros, C. Laguna, Taewook Kim, Philipp Schreyer et al.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
article

Radiation hardness of ovonic threshold switches under swift heavy-ion irradiation

Eszter Piros, C. Laguna, Taewook Kim, Philipp Schreyer, Tobias Vogel, Lambert Alff, Gabriele Navarro, Alexey Arzumanov, Yu Duan, Christina Trautmann, V. Meli, Yingxin Li, Maria Eugenia Toimil-Molares
article en

Abstract

Acting as non-linear selector devices, ovonic threshold switches (OTS) are essential for suppressing sneak-path currents in large-scale crossbar arrays, thereby enabling scalable and energy-efficient integration of resistive memories. As conventional transistors approach their scalability limits, OTS technology offers a promising pathway toward reliable and high-performance memory systems of the future. Furthermore, conventional semiconductor transistors, are known to be highly susceptible to radiation-induced effects leading to function failure. In this study, we present two chalcogenide-based OTS that exhibit pronounced radiation hardness under high-fluence irradiation with GeV gold ions in the electronic energy loss regime. As demonstrated by X-ray diffraction analysis, the ion irradiation does not induce detectable structural changes and the amorphous configuration of the OTS remains preserved. A comparison of the electrical behavior of virgin, initialized and cycled OTS before and after irradiation shows that threshold-switching characteristics and overall functionality remain largely unaffected.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and AtomsVol. 581
GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), CEA Grenoble (FR), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Direction de la Recherche Technologique (FR), Laboratoire d'Électronique des Technologies de l'Information (FR), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 22%
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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