R&D: Sensitivity of HfO2-Based RRAM Cells to Laser Irradiation

Microprocessors and Microsystems has published an article written by Dmytro Petryk, Zoya Dyka, Eduardo Perez, Ievgen Kabin, Jens Katzer, Jan Schäffner, IHP – Leibniz-Institut für innovative Mikroelektronik, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and Peter Langendörfer, IHP – Leibniz-Institut für innovative Mikroelektronik, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany.

Abstract: “Today, the technology of resistive random access memory is used as a non-volatile memory. In this paper we investigate in details the sensitivity of the TiN/Ti/Al:HfO2/TiN-based 1T-1R resistive random access memory cells implemented in a 250 nm CMOS IHP technology to the laser irradiation. Experimental results show that the laser irradiation can influence the resistive state of RRAM cells significantly, i.e. precisely localized optical faults can be successfully injected. We focus on the selection of the configurable parameters of the laser station and their influence on the success of optical Fault Injections. Additionally, we localize sensitive areas of attacked chips. Based on the determined sensitive areas we show that metal fillers atop memory cells influence on success of optical fault injection attacks.“