The effects of the external load resistance on the resistive switching (RS) behavior of Pt/TiO2/Pt RS cells were examined using model calculations and experiments. With increasing load resistance, the reset voltage increased more rapidly than the set voltage, which eventually resulted in RS failure. For the experiment, various electrode materials were examined to achieve both a stable RS behavior of a TiO2 film and a cross bar array (CBA) with sufficiently low line resistance. The effect of the line resistance on the RS behavior was studied from the electrical characterization of the fabricated cross-bar structure. A high line resistance causes an undesirable high operation voltage and the failure of stable RS in extreme cases. Overall, a sufficiently low interconnect line resistance is essential for achieving stable operation and rapid RS in a CBA structure. (C) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3478143] All rights reserved.