Measuring and Analyzing Random Telegraph Noise in Nanoscale Devices: The Case of Resistive Random Access Memories

In this paper, we discuss some of the measurement and analysis techniques for Random Telegraph Noise (RTN). Due to its detrimental impact on devices, RTN mechanism must be investigated and integrated into device models. However, RTN analysis requires a self-consistent framework in which automated measurement techniques, data analysis procedures, and physics-based modeling are blended together. Here we discuss guidelines to perform correct RTN measurements, and statistical techniques to perform advanced data analysis. This allows getting reliable results, which can lead to an unbiased physical interpretation of the phenomenon. The statistical analysis of RTN measured in hafnium oxide RRAM devices allows revealing the mechanism leading to the wide RTN fluctuations in high-resistive state, as well as the physical properties of the defect species involved in this phenomenon.