Pulse experiments on electroformed mim structures

Voltage pulses of amplitude from 0 to 10 V, width 1 μs to 10 ms and with a wide range of repetition frequencies have been applied to electroformed Al-SiO x -Au devices and the pulsed current-voltage characteristics have been examined. The peak currents observed were up to 28 times larger than those obtained under d.c. bias conditions. It is argued that these results can be understood in terms of the filamentary model of conduction in electroformed devices but are in quantitative disagreement with the theory in its present form. Attempts to estimate the energy required for switching a device into a high impedance state were made using single 1 μs voltage pulses. These are compared with similar experiments reported in the literature. It is suggested that the present experiments yield the only unequivocal upper limit for the energy required to switch a device into a high impedance state.