Solution processed laterally grown Zinc Oxide microstructures for next generation computing devices

Traditional charge storage-based computer memories suffered from the scaling limits that stimulate the development of next generation memories with improved performances. This also involves the exploration of new materials and the development/exploration of unique device fabrication processes. In this work, a new type of laterally bridged Zinc oxide (ZnO) micro-bushes-based resistive memory is presented by employing simple Cut and Grow strategy. The growth of lateral ZnO micro-bushes, electrochemically grown across a 100 μm cavity (grooved on copper tape) was controlled by tuning deposition time. The memory device demonstrated unique write once read many times (WORM) behavior with exceptional stability and reliability with an on-off ratio higher than 10⁶. Moreover, the lateral memory device exhibited great potential to tackle large variations in stochastic computing applications. This unique strategy underscores a great potential to develop low cost, simple and highly reliable lateral device fabrication with exceptional functionalities, comparable to traditional fabrication methods.