TY - GEN A1 - Morales, Carlos A1 - Mahmoodinezhad, Ali A1 - Tschammer, Rudi A1 - Kosto, Yuliia A1 - Alvarado Chavarin, Carlos A1 - Schubert, Markus Andreas A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Henkel, Karsten A1 - Flege, Jan Ingo T1 - Combination of Multiple Operando and In-Situ Characterization Techniques in a Single Cluster System for Atomic Layer Deposition: Unraveling the Early Stages of Growth of Ultrathin Al2O3 Films on Metallic Ti Substrates T2 - Inorganics N2 - This work presents a new ultra-high vacuum cluster tool to perform systematic studies of the early growth stages of atomic layer deposited (ALD) ultrathin films following a surface science approach. By combining operando (spectroscopic ellipsometry and quadrupole mass spectrometry) and in situ (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) characterization techniques, the cluster allows us to follow the evolution of substrate, film, and reaction intermediates as a function of the total number of ALD cycles, as well as perform a constant diagnosis and evaluation of the ALD process, detecting possible malfunctions that could affect the growth, reproducibility, and conclusions derived from data analysis. The homemade ALD reactor allows the use of multiple precursors and oxidants and its operation under pump and flow-type modes. To illustrate our experimental approach, we revisit the well-known thermal ALD growth of Al2O3 using trimethylaluminum and water. We deeply discuss the role of the metallic Ti thin film substrate at room temperature and 200 °C, highlighting the differences between the heterodeposition (<10 cycles) and the homodeposition (>10 cycles) growth regimes at both conditions. This surface science approach will benefit our understanding of the ALD process, paving the way toward more efficient and controllable manufacturing processes. KW - Atomic layer deposition (ALD) KW - in-situ KW - operando KW - X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy KW - ellipsometry KW - quadrupol mass spectrometry (QMS) Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics11120477 SN - 2304-6740 VL - 11 IS - 12 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Capista, Daniele A1 - Lukose, Rasuole A1 - Majnoon, Farnaz A1 - Lisker, Marco A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Lukosius, Mindaugas T1 - Study on the metal -graphene contact resistance achieved with one -dimensional contact architecture T2 - IEEE Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference (NMDC 2023), Paestum, Italy, 22-25 October 2023 N2 - Graphene has always been considered as one of the materials with the greatest potential for the realization of improved microelectronic and photonic devices. But to actually reach its full potential in Si CMOS technology, graphene -based devices need to overcome different challenges. They do not only need to have better performances than standard devices, but they also need to be compatible with the production of standard Si based devices. To address the first challenge the main route requires the optimization of the contact resistance, that highly reduces the devices performance, while the second challenges requires the integration of graphene inside the standard production lines used for microelectronic. In this work we used an 8” wafer pilot -line to realize our devices and we studied the behavior of the contact resistance between metal and graphene obtained by one -dimensional contact architecture between the two materials. The contact resistance has been measured by means of Transmission Line Method (TLM) with several contact patterning. KW - Graphene Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-3546-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/NMDC57951.2023.10343775 SP - 118 EP - 119 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lukosius, Mindaugas A1 - Lukose, Rasuolė A1 - Lisker, Marco A1 - Dubey, P. K. A1 - Raju, A. I. A1 - Capista, Daniele A1 - Majnoon, Farnaz A1 - Mai, A. A1 - Wenger, Christian T1 - Developments of Graphene devices in 200 mm CMOS pilot line T2 - Proc. Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference (NMDC 2023),Paestum, Italy, 22-25 October 2023 N2 - Due to the unique electronic band structure, graphene has opened great potential to extend the functionality of a large variety of devices. Despite the significant progress in the fabrication of various graphene based microelectronic devices, the integration of graphene devices still lack the stability and compatibility with Si-technology processes. Therefore, the investigation and preparation of graphene devices in conditions resembling as close as possible the Si technology environment is of highest importance. This study aims to explore various aspects of graphene research on a 200mm pilot line, with a focus on simulations and fabrication of graphene modulator. To be more precise, it includes design and fabrication of the layouts, necessary mask sets, creation of the flows, fabrication, and measurements of the Gr modulators on 200 mm wafers. KW - Graphene Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-3546-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/NMDC57951.2023.10343569 SP - 505 EP - 506 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - GEN A1 - Maldonado, David A1 - Cantudo, Antonio A1 - Pérez, Eduardo A1 - Romero-Zaliz, Rocio A1 - Perez-Bosch Quesada, Emilio A1 - Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba Kalishettyhalli A1 - Jimenez-Molinos, Francisco A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Roldan, Juan Bautista T1 - TiN/Ti/HfO2/TiN Memristive Devices for Neuromorphic Computing: From Synaptic Plasticity to Stochastic Resonance T2 - Frontiers in Neuroscience N2 - We characterize TiN/Ti/HfO2/TiN memristive devices for neuromorphic computing. We analyze different features that allow the devices to mimic biological synapses and present the models to reproduce analytically some of the data measured. In particular, we have measured the spike timing dependent plasticity behavior in our devices and later on we have modeled it. The spike timing dependent plasticity model was implemented as the learning rule of a spiking neural network that was trained to recognize the MNIST dataset. Variability is implemented and its influence on the network recognition accuracy is considered accounting for the number of neurons in the network and the number of training epochs. Finally, stochastic resonance is studied as another synaptic feature.It is shown that this effect is important and greatly depends on the noise statistical characteristics. KW - RRAM KW - Neural network Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1271956 SN - 1662-4548 VL - 17 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Perez-Bosch Quesada, Emilio A1 - Rizzi, Tommaso A1 - Gupta, Aditya A1 - Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba Kalishettyhalli A1 - Schubert, Andreas A1 - Pechmann, Stefan A1 - Jia, Ruolan A1 - Uhlmann, Max A1 - Hagelauer, Amelie A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Pérez, Eduardo T1 - Multi-Level Programming on Radiation-Hard 1T1R Memristive Devices for In-Memory Computing T2 - 14th Spanish Conference on Electron Devices (CDE 2023), Valencia, Spain, 06-08 June 2023 N2 - This work presents a quasi-static electrical characterization of 1-transistor-1-resistor memristive structures designed following hardness-by-design techniques integrated in the CMOS fabrication process to assure multi-level capabilities in harsh radiation environments. Modulating the gate voltage of the enclosed layout transistor connected in series with the memristive device, it was possible to achieve excellent switching capabilities from a single high resistance state to a total of eight different low resistance states (more than 3 bits). Thus, the fabricated devices are suitable for their integration in larger in-memory computing systems and in multi-level memory applications. Index Terms—radiation-hard, hardness-by-design, memristive devices, Enclosed Layout Transistor, in-memory computing KW - RRAM Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-0240-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/CDE58627.2023.10339525 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - GEN A1 - Pérez, Eduardo A1 - Maldonado, David A1 - Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba Kalishettyhalli A1 - Perez-Bosch Quesada, Emilio A1 - Cantudo, Antonio A1 - Jimenez-Molinos, Francisco A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Roldan, Juan Bautista T1 - A comparison of resistive switching parameters for memristive devices with HfO2 monolayers and Al2O3/HfO2 bilayers at the wafer scale T2 - 14th Spanish Conference on Electron Devices (CDE 2023), Valencia, Spain, 06-08 June 2023 N2 - Memristive devices integrated in 200 mm wafers manufactured in 130 nm CMOS technology with two different dielectrics, namely, a HfO2 monolayer and an Al2O3/HfO2 bilayer, have been measured. The cycle-to-cycle (C2C) and device-todevice (D2D) variability have been analyzed at the wafer scale using different numerical methods to extract the set (Vset) and reset (Vreset) voltages. Some interesting differences between both technologies were found in terms of switching characteristics KW - RRAM Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-0240-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/CDE58627.2023.10339417 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reiser, Daniel A1 - Reichenbach, Marc A1 - Rizzi, Tommaso A1 - Baroni, Andrea A1 - Fritscher, Markus A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Zambelli, Cristian A1 - Bertozzi, Davide T1 - Technology-Aware Drift Resilience Analysis of RRAM Crossbar Array Configurations T2 - 21st IEEE Interregional NEWCAS Conference (NEWCAS), 26-28 June 2023, Edinburgh, United Kingdom N2 - In-memory computing with resistive-switching random access memory (RRAM) crossbar arrays has the potential to overcome the major bottlenecks faced by digital hardware for data-heavy workloads such as deep learning. However, RRAM devices are subject to several non-idealities that result in significant inference accuracy drops compared with software baseline accuracy. A critical one is related to the drift of the conductance states appearing immediately at the end of program and verify algorithms that are mandatory for accurate multi-level conductance operation. The support of drift models in state-of-the-art simulation tools of memristive computationin-memory is currently only in the early stage, since they overlook key device- and array-level parameters affecting drift resilience such as the programming algorithm of RRAM cells, the choice of target conductance states and the weight-toconductance mapping scheme. The goal of this paper is to fully expose these parameters to RRAM crossbar designers as a multi-dimensional optimization space of drift resilience. For this purpose, a simulation framework is developed, which comes with the suitable abstractions to propagate the effects of those RRAM crossbar configuration parameters to their ultimate implications over inference performance stability. KW - RRAM Y1 - 2023 SN - 979-8-3503-0024-6 SN - 979-8-3503-0025-3 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/NEWCAS57931.2023 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway, NJ ER - TY - GEN A1 - Franck, Max A1 - Dabrowski, Jarek A1 - Schubert, Markus Andreas A1 - Vignaud, Dominique A1 - Achehboune, Mohamed A1 - Colomer, Jean‐François A1 - Henrard, Luc A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Lukosius, Mindaugas T1 - Investigating Impacts of Local Pressure and Temperature on CVD Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Ge(001)/Si T2 - Advanced Materials Interfaces N2 - AbstractThe chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on Ge substrates is a promising pathway to high‐quality hBN thin films without metal contaminations for microelectronic applications, but the effect of CVD process parameters on the hBN properties is not well understood yet. The influence of local changes in pressure and temperature due to different reactor configurations on the structure and quality of hBN films grown on Ge(001)/Si is studied. Injection of the borazine precursor close to the sample surface results in an inhomogeneous film thickness, attributed to an inhomogeneous pressure distribution at the surface, as shown by computational fluid dynamics simulations. The additional formation of nanocrystalline islands is attributed to unfavorable gas phase reactions due to the radiative heating of the injector. Both issues are mitigated by increasing the injector‐sample distance, leading to an 86% reduction in pressure variability on the sample surface and a 200 °C reduction in precursor temperature. The resulting hBN films exhibit no nanocrystalline islands, improved thickness homogeneity, and high crystalline quality (Raman FWHM = 23 cm−1). This is competitive with hBN films grown on other non‐metal substrates but achieved at lower temperature and with a low thickness of only a few nanometers. KW - Boron Nitride KW - 2D material Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202400467 SN - 2196-7350 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Wiley ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wen, Jianan A1 - Vargas, Fabian Luis A1 - Zhu, Fukun A1 - Reiser, Daniel A1 - Baroni, Andrea A1 - Fritscher, Markus A1 - Perez, Eduardo A1 - Reichenbach, Marc A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Krstic, Milos T1 - RRAMulator : an efficient FPGA-based emulator for RRAM crossbar with device variability and energy consumption evaluation T2 - Microelectronics Reliability N2 - The in-memory computing (IMC) systems based on emerging technologies have gained significant attention due to their potential to enhance performance and energy efficiency by minimizing data movement between memory and processing unit, which is especially beneficial for data-intensive applications. Designing and evaluating systems utilizing emerging memory technologies, such as resistive RAM (RRAM), poses considerable challenges due to the limited support from electronics design automation (EDA) tools for rapid development and design space exploration. Additionally, incorporating technology-dependent variability into system-level simulations is critical to accurately assess the impact on system reliability and performance. To bridge this gap, we propose RRAMulator, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based hardware emulator for RRAM crossbar array. To avoid the complex device models capturing the nonlinear current–voltage (IV) relationships that degrade emulation speed and increase hardware utilization, we propose a device and variability modeling approach based on device measurements. We deploy look-up tables (LUTs) for device modeling and use the multivariate kernel density estimation (KDE) method to augment existing data, extending data variety and avoiding repetitive data usage. The proposed emulator achieves cycle-accurate, real-time emulations and provides information such as latency and energy consumption for matrix mapping and vector–matrix multiplications (VMMs). Experimental results show a significant reduction in emulation time compared to conventional behavioral simulations. Additionally, an RRAM-based discrete Fourier transform (DFT) accelerator is analyzed as a case study featuring a range of in-depth system assessments. KW - RRAM Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2025.115630 SN - 0026-2714 VL - 168 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Elsevier BV CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Spetzler, Benjamin A1 - Fritscher, Markus A1 - Park, Seongae A1 - Kim, Nayoun A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Ziegler, Martin T1 - AI-driven model for optimized pulse programming of memristive devices T2 - APL Machine Learning N2 - Next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) hardware based on memristive devices offers a promising approach to reducing the increasingly large energy consumption of AI applications. However, programming memristive AI hardware to achieve a desired synaptic weight configuration remains challenging because it requires accurate and energy-efficient algorithms for selecting the optimal weight-update pulses. Here, we present a computationally efficient AI model for predicting the weight update of memristive devices and guiding device programming. The synaptic weight-update behavior of bilayer HfO2/TiO2 memristive devices is characterized over a range of pulse parameters to provide experimental data for the AI model. Three different artificial neural network (ANN) configurations are trained and evaluated regarding the amount of training data required for accurate predictions and the computational costs. Finally, we apply the model to an antipulse weight-update process to demonstrate its performance. The results show that accurate and computationally inexpensive predictions are possible with comparatively few datasets and small ANNs. The normalized weight-update processes are predicted with accuracies comparable with larger model architectures but require only 896 floating point operations and 8.33 nJ per inference. This makes the model a promising candidate for integration into AI-driven device controllers as a precise and energy-efficient solution for memristive device programming. KW - RRAM KW - Neural network KW - Device model Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0251113 SN - 2770-9019 VL - 3 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - AIP Publishing ER -