Read operation performance of large selectorless cross-point array with self-rectifying memristive device

Memristive device based passive crossbar arrays hold a great promise for high-density and non-volatile memories. A significant challenge of ultra-high density integration of these crossbars is unwanted sneakpath currents. The most common way of addressing this issue today is an integrated or external selecting device to block unwanted current paths. In this paper, we use a memristive device with intrinsic rectifying behavior to suppress sneak-path currents in the crossbar. We systematically evaluate the read operation performance of large-scale crossbar arrays with regard to read margin and power consumption for different crossbar sizes, nanowire interconnect resistances, ON and OFF resistances, rectification ratios under different read-schemes. Outcomes of this study allow improved understanding of the tradeoff between read margin, power consumption and read-schemes. Most importantly, this study provides a guideline for circuit designers to improve the performance of oxide-based resistive memory (RRAM) based cross-point arrays. Overall, self-rectifying behavior of the memristive device efficiently improves the read operation performance of large-scale selectorless cross-point arrays. & 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.