Solids (Dec 2023)

A Comparative Study of n- and p-Channel FeFETs with Ferroelectric HZO Gate Dielectric

  • Paul Jacob,
  • Pooja C. Patil,
  • Shan Deng,
  • Kai Ni,
  • Khushwant Sehra,
  • Mridula Gupta,
  • Manoj Saxena,
  • David MacMahon,
  • Santosh Kurinec

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/solids4040023
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 4
pp. 356 – 367

Abstract

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This study investigates the electrical characteristics observed in n-channel and p-channel ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) devices fabricated through a similar process flow with 10 nm of ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) as the gate dielectric. The n-FeFETs demonstrate a faster complete polarization switching compared to the p-channel counterparts. Detailed and systematic investigations using TCAD simulations reveal the role of fixed charges and interface traps at the HZO-interfacial layer (HZO/IL) interface in modulating the subthreshold characteristics of the devices. A characteristic crossover point observed in the transfer characteristics of n-channel devices is attributed with the temporary switching between ferroelectric-based operation to charge-based operation, caused by the pinning effect due to the presence of different traps. This experimental study helps understand the role of charge trapping effects in switching characteristics of n- and p-channel ferroelectric FETs.

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