Nonvolatile Electrochemical Random-Access Memory Under Short Circuit

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel electrochemical RAM with significantly improved retention time, potentially exceeding 10 years at 85°C, enabling its use in neural network inference tasks.

Contribution

The work develops an ECRAM cell leveraging phase separation to achieve long-lasting retention, surpassing previous limitations of a few hours.

Findings

Retention time exceeds 10 years at 85°C

Phase separation enables multiple stable resistance states

Potential for permanent memory applications

Abstract

Electrochemical random-access memory (ECRAM) is a recently developed and highly promising analog resistive memory element for in-memory computing. One longstanding challenge of ECRAM is attaining retention time beyond a few hours. This short retention has precluded ECRAM from being considered for inference classification in deep neural networks, which is likely the largest opportunity for in-memory computing. In this work, we develop an ECRAM cell with orders of magnitude longer retention than previously achieved, and which we anticipate to exceed 10 years at 85C. We hypothesize that the origin of this exceptional retention is phase separation, which enables the formation of multiple effectively equilibrium resistance states. This work highlights the promises and opportunities to use phase separation to yield ECRAM cells with exceptionally long, and potentially permanent, retention times.