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Area-Dependent Switching in Thin Film-Silicon Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Jian Hu ,
Warren Jackson ,
Scott Ward ,
Pauls Stradins ,
Howard M. Branz  and
Qi Wang
Jian Hu
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Warren Jackson
Affiliation:
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, 1501 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
Scott Ward
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Pauls Stradins
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Howard M. Branz
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Qi Wang
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401, USA
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Abstract

We report on the area dependence of switching in both Cr/p+a-Si:H/Ag(Al) and Cr/p+μc-Si/Ag(Al) filament switches. The doped amorphous (a-Si:H) or microcrystalline (μc-Si) thin Si layers are made by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. The device active region area (A) is varied over 5 orders of magnitude, from 10-7 to 10-2 cm2, using photolithographically defined Ag and Al top contacts. Before switching, the resistance of 100-μm2 devices is normally about 100 kΩ for μc-Si and 10 GΩ for a-Si:H. After switching with applied current ramps, the resistance decreases to a few hundred ohms in all a-Si devices and to a few thousands ohms in μc-Si devices. In both μc-Si and a-Si:H devices, the switching voltage (Vsw) decreases with increasing device area according to Vsw ~ V0-αln(A/A0) with α=0.3V for a-Si:H and α=0.04V for μc-Si. For both materials, the switching current roughly obeys the power law Isw ∞ Aβ with β~1. A statistical model is proposed to explain the area scaling of the switching voltage and relate the parameters to the material properties.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 762: Symposium A – Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon-Based Films – 2003 , 2003 , A18.3
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

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