Thermally Pre-Formed Reconfigurable Resistive Random-Access Memory Crossbar Arrays: A Dual-Mode Platform for Robust Physically Unclonable Functions and In-Memory Computing

초록

Intelligent edge hardware requires both high-entropy physical signatures for security and highly uniform devices for accurate In-Memory Computing (IMC), yet conventional Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) relies on electroforming that irreversibly damages the dielectric and fixes the filament state. A forming-free RRAM platform is demonstrated in which Thermally Pre-formed Filaments (TPFs) are generated by solid-state oxygen scavenging between an oxygen-deficient TiOx reservoir and an ultrathin Al2O3 switching layer. Thermodynamically driven, reversible ionic migration forms percolation-threshold conduction networks that produce a device-unique distribution of initial resistance states, enabling Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs). A reverse-bias reset fully erases the conductive network and restores a pristine-like high-resistance state, allowing the same array to be reconfigured into a uniform analog synaptic platform without additional forming. In a 24 & times; 24 crossbar array, the PUF responses pass the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-22 test suite, and the reconfigured array shows high-fidelity multilevel conductance programming for neuromorphic IMC. This reversible transition from stochastic security primitives to uniform analog computing establishes a damage-free route toward reconfigurable secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) hardware.

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