Patent 11183631 was granted and assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on November, 2021 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present disclosure, in some embodiments, relates to a resistive random access memory (RRAM) device. The RRAM device includes a bottom electrode that is disposed over a lower interconnect layer surrounded by a lower inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer. A data storage structure is arranged over the bottom electrode and a multi-layer top electrode is disposed over the data storage structure. The multi-layer top electrode includes conductive top electrode layers separated by an oxygen barrier structure that is configured to mitigate movement of oxygen between the conductive top electrode layers. A sidewall spacer is disposed directly over the bottom electrode and has a sidewall that covers outermost sidewalls of the conductive top electrode layers and the oxygen barrier structure.