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Resistive random access memories are emerging as a new type of memory that has the potential to combine both the speed of volatile and the retention of nonvolatile memories. It operates based on the formation/dissolution of a low-resistivity filament being constituted of either metallic ions or atomic vacancies within an insulating matrix. At present, the mechanisms and the parameters controlling the performances of the device remain unclear. In that respect, first-principles simulations provide useful insights on the atomistic mechanisms, the thermodynamic and kinetics factors that modulate the material conductivity, providing guidance into the engineering of the operation of the device. In this paper, we review the current state-of-the-art knowledge on the atomistic switching mechanisms driving the operation of copper-based conductive bridge RRAM and HfOx valence change RRAM. [GRAPHICS] Conceptual illustration of the RRAM device with the filament formation and disruption during its operation. AE/IM/CE are the active electrode/insulating matrix/counterelectrode. The blue circles represent the conducting defects. (C) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

In basic computational physics classes, students often raise the question of how to compute a number that exceeds the numerical limit of the machine. While technique of avoiding overflow/underflow has practical application in the electrical and electronics engineering industries, it is not commonly utilized in scientific computing, because scientific notation is adequate in most cases. We present an undergraduate project that deals with such calculations beyond a machine's numerical limit, known as arbitrary precision arithmetic. The assignment asks students to investigate the approach of calculating the exact value of a large number beyond the floating point number precision, using the basic scientific programming language Fortran. The basic concept is to utilize arrays to decompose the number and allocate finite memory. Examples of the successive multiplication of even number and the multiplication and division of two overflowing floats are presented. The multiple precision scheme has been applied to hardware and firmware design for digital signal processing (DSP) systems, and is gaining importance to scientific computing. Such basic arithmetic operations can be integrated to solve advanced mathematical problems to almost arbitrarily-high precision that is limited by the memory of the host machine., Comment: 5 figures, accepted for publication in International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering

High performance of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) prepared using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was employed in GaN blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as transparent conductive layers (TCL). By the post-annealing process, the annealed 800°C GZO films exhibited a high transparency above 97% at wavelength of 450 nm. The contact resistance of GZO decreased with the annealing temperature increasing. It was attributed to the improvement of the GZO crystal quality, leading to an increase in electron concentration. It was also found that some Zn atom caused from the decomposition process diffused into the p-GaN surface of LED, which generated a stronger tunneling effect at the GZO/p-GaN interface and promoted the formation of ohmic contact. Moreover, contrast to the ITO-LED, a high light extraction efficiency of 77% was achieved in the GZO-LED at injection current of 20 mA. At 350 mA injection current, the output power of 256.51 mW of GZO-LEDs, corresponding to a 21.5% enhancement as compared to ITO-LEDs was obtained; results are promising for the development of GZO using the MOCVD technique for GaN LED applications.

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) materials with high thermal stability and high carrier mobility are essential for the development of transparent conductive electrodes (TCE). We changed the amount of Ga doping into ZnO thin films to decrease the electric resistivity of ZnO thin film. The GZO films have been grown on c-plane sapphire substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). It was found that GZO films transparency rate can reach more than up 90 %, and up to 10-4 Ω-cm resistivity magnitude. The results show that GZO transparent conductive films were thermal annealing treatment under nitrogen ambient at for 2 minutes by rapid thermal annealing. And Ga doping into the ZnO is about to 1020 cm-3. It reveals that the GZO can significant improve the conductivity and increase the carrier concentration.