ITRS 2013 Emerging Research Devices on HfO2 based ferroelectric devices

ITRS 2013 Emerging Research Devices (ERD) Chapter has been updated on ferroelectric devices (page 13) referring to recent development using ferroelectric hafnium oxide.

From Page 12 : Notably, since 2011, ferroelectricity in a variety of doped and polycrystalline HfO2 has been reported. The HfO2 based FeFETs show promising write speed (down to a few ns), retention (projected to 10 years), and endurance (up to 1012), which all match the best performances of its perovskite counterparts (refer to ERD4a). [65,66,67,68,69], and HfO2-based FeFETs have been fabricated using standard high-k metal gate (HKMG) processes. The use of HfO2-based ferroelectrics significantly reduces the physical thickness of the gate stack, and in turn scales down the channel length to the current technology node [70]. Follow the typical HKMG process, SiO2 serves as the buffer layer between HfO2 and Si with a sub-nanometer thickness, yielding low depolarization field.

"In Ferroelectric FET memory, a ferroelectric dielectric forms the gate insulator of an FET. The main concern on FeFET memory lies in operation reliability. Operational reliability of the FeFET RAM is limited by the time dependant remnant polarization of the ferroelectric gate dielectric reflected in retention loss. Control of the ferroelectric-semiconductor interface is critical for FeFET properties. The scalability of FeFET memory beyond the 22nm generation is uncertain"

 

As a comparasion to RRAM, one of the main contenders for emerging memory technologies:

 

"RRAM include multiple device types and mechanisms with varying level of maturity. The survey is based on rating of the general field rather than specific types. Some recent breakthrough in RRAM significantly enhanced perceived potential of this technology, e.g., 32Gb array demonstration726. Overall RRAM assessment is similar or better than existing CMOS-based nonvolatile memories (Flash). A clear advantage of RRAM is scalability owing to the filamentary conduction and switching mechanisms. The simple device structure and fab-friendly materials also contribute to high rating in CMOS compatibility. One of the major concerns of RRAM is the operation reliability due to the stochastic nature and the defect-related mechanisms. Large variation of RRAM switching parameters has been commonly observed and is considered an intrinsic feature of RRAM mechanisms."

 

Refernces on FeFET:

[65] T. S. Boscke, J. Muller, D. Brauhaus, U. Schroder, and U. Bottger, "Ferroelectricity in hafnium oxide: CMOS compatible ferroelectric field effect transistors," IEDM 2011, pp. 24.5.1–24.5.4.
[66] M. Hyuk Park, H. Joon Kim, Y. Jin Kim, W. Lee, H. Kyeom Kim, and C. Seong Hwang, "Effect of forming gas annealing on the ferroelectric properties of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films with and without Pt electrodes," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 102, no. 11, p. 112914, 2013.
[67] J. Muller, et al, "Ferroelectricity in yttrium-doped hafnium oxide," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 110, no. 11, p. 114113, 2011.
[68] J. Muller, et al, "Ferroelectric Zr0.5Hf0.5O2 thin films for nonvolatile memory applications," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 99, no. 11, p. 112901, 2011.
[69] S. Mueller, J. Mueller, A. Singh, S. Riedel, J. Sundqvist, U. Schroeder, and T. Mikolajick, "Incipient Ferroelectricity in Al-Doped HfO2 Thin Films," Adv. Funct. Mater., vol. 22, no. 11, pp. 2412–2417, Jun. 2012.

[70] J. Muller, E. Yurchuk, T. Schlosser, J. Paul, R. Hoffmann, S. Muller, D. Martin, S. Slesazeck, P. Polakowski, J. Sundqvist, M. Czernohorsky, K. Seidel, P. Kucher, R. Boschke, M. Trentzsch, K. Gebauer, U. Schroder, and T. Mikolajick, "Ferroelectricity in HfO2 enables nonvolatile data storage in 28 nm HKMG," 2012 Symp. VLSI Tech., pp. 25–26, 2012