Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications

In this work, the ferroelectric (FE) Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitor with a novel anti-ferroelectric (AFE) ZrO2 seed layer is thoroughly investigated for memory applications, by comparing with both HZO capacitors without seed layer and with O-phase-dominated ZrO2 seed layer. A fully vacuum-sealed syste...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mengxuan Yang, Kaifeng Wang, Bocheng Yu, Zhiyuan Fu, Chang Su, Qianqian Huang, Ru Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10763514/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849772802135031808
author Mengxuan Yang
Kaifeng Wang
Bocheng Yu
Zhiyuan Fu
Chang Su
Qianqian Huang
Ru Huang
author_facet Mengxuan Yang
Kaifeng Wang
Bocheng Yu
Zhiyuan Fu
Chang Su
Qianqian Huang
Ru Huang
author_sort Mengxuan Yang
collection DOAJ
description In this work, the ferroelectric (FE) Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitor with a novel anti-ferroelectric (AFE) ZrO2 seed layer is thoroughly investigated for memory applications, by comparing with both HZO capacitors without seed layer and with O-phase-dominated ZrO2 seed layer. A fully vacuum-sealed system is used for device fabrication to mitigate the interfacial defects during the material growth process, and the process conditions are carefully optimized. Experimental results demonstrated that the ZrO2-based seed layer can enhance ferroelectricity of the HZO capacitor, and the T-phase-dominated ZrO2 seed layer can further largely enhance the endurance to more than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{9}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> without ferroelectricity penalty. Detailed analysis are further performed and demonstrated that the enhanced performance is resulted from the significantly suppressed M-phase ratio and oxygen vacancies. The T-phase dominated ZrO2 seed layer results in only 3.7% M-phase ratio in HZO and 12% reduction of trap charge density compared with conventional FE capacitors. Moreover, the slower leakage current growth rate in the interface also helps the endurance improvement in the proposed design, indicating its great potential for high reliable FeRAM application.
format Article
id doaj-art-1c8d9f7dcacb41b5b4bfcd04fe4b5041
institution DOAJ
issn 2168-6734
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society
spelling doaj-art-1c8d9f7dcacb41b5b4bfcd04fe4b50412025-08-20T03:02:14ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society2168-67342025-01-011379279910.1109/JEDS.2024.350484910763514Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory ApplicationsMengxuan Yang0Kaifeng Wang1https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3331-7716Bocheng Yu2Zhiyuan Fu3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3656-3414Chang Su4Qianqian Huang5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3714-8581Ru Huang6School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Integrated Circuits, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaIn this work, the ferroelectric (FE) Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitor with a novel anti-ferroelectric (AFE) ZrO2 seed layer is thoroughly investigated for memory applications, by comparing with both HZO capacitors without seed layer and with O-phase-dominated ZrO2 seed layer. A fully vacuum-sealed system is used for device fabrication to mitigate the interfacial defects during the material growth process, and the process conditions are carefully optimized. Experimental results demonstrated that the ZrO2-based seed layer can enhance ferroelectricity of the HZO capacitor, and the T-phase-dominated ZrO2 seed layer can further largely enhance the endurance to more than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{9}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> without ferroelectricity penalty. Detailed analysis are further performed and demonstrated that the enhanced performance is resulted from the significantly suppressed M-phase ratio and oxygen vacancies. The T-phase dominated ZrO2 seed layer results in only 3.7% M-phase ratio in HZO and 12% reduction of trap charge density compared with conventional FE capacitors. Moreover, the slower leakage current growth rate in the interface also helps the endurance improvement in the proposed design, indicating its great potential for high reliable FeRAM application.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10763514/FeRAMHZO and ZrO₂
spellingShingle Mengxuan Yang
Kaifeng Wang
Bocheng Yu
Zhiyuan Fu
Chang Su
Qianqian Huang
Ru Huang
Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society
FeRAM
HZO and ZrO₂
title Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
title_full Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
title_fullStr Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
title_full_unstemmed Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
title_short Endurance Enhancement in Hafnia-Based Ferroelectric Capacitor Through Anti-Ferroelectric Zirconia Seed Layer for Memory Applications
title_sort endurance enhancement in hafnia based ferroelectric capacitor through anti ferroelectric zirconia seed layer for memory applications
topic FeRAM
HZO and ZrO₂
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10763514/
work_keys_str_mv AT mengxuanyang enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT kaifengwang enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT bochengyu enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT zhiyuanfu enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT changsu enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT qianqianhuang enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications
AT ruhuang enduranceenhancementinhafniabasedferroelectriccapacitorthroughantiferroelectriczirconiaseedlayerformemoryapplications