IEEE Journal on Exploratory Solid-State Computational Devices and Circuits (Jan 2021)
Characterizing Ferroelectric Properties of Hf<sub>0.5</sub>Zr<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>2</sub> From Deep-Cryogenic Temperature (4 K) to 400 K
Abstract
Ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) thin film has obtained considerable attention for emerging non-volatile memory (eNVM) and synaptic device applications. To our best knowledge, the polarization switching of HZO has not been comprehensively investigated in wide-ranging temperatures from deep-cryogenic 4 K to elevated temperature 400 K within the same set of test structures. In this work, we experimentally characterize the reliability effects such as endurance (wake-up, fatigue, and breakdown), retention (including imprint), and small-signal response of the HZO capacitor from the lowest temperature reported (4 K) to the elevated temperature (400 K). We demonstrate one of the highest endurance cycles $ > 3.5\times 10^{10}$ among reported TiN/HZO/TiN capacitors with negligible wake-up/fatigue effects or retention degradation, all obtained at 4 K. Based on the experimental results, we further simulated ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) and ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) to evaluate their potentials as cryogenic memories.
Keywords
