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Review
. 2023 Mar 2;3(3):332-345.
doi: 10.1016/j.fmre.2023.02.010. eCollection 2023 May.

HfO2-based ferroelectric thin film and memory device applications in the post-Moore era: A review

Jiajia Liao  1   2 , Siwei Dai  1 , Ren-Ci Peng  1   2 , Jiangheng Yang  1 , Binjian Zeng  3 , Min Liao  1   2 , Yichun Zhou  1   2
Affiliations
Review

HfO2-based ferroelectric thin film and memory device applications in the post-Moore era: A review

Jiajia Liao et al. Fundam Res. .

Abstract

The rapid development of 5G, big data, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is urgently required for novel non-volatile memory devices with low power consumption, fast read/write speed, and high reliability, which are crucial for high-performance computing. Ferroelectric memory has undergone extensive investigation as a viable alternative for commercial applications since the post-Moore era. However, conventional perovskite-structure ferroelectrics (e.g., PbZr x Ti1- x O3) encounter severe limitations for high-density integration owing to the size effect of ferroelectricity and incompatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. Since 2011, the ferroelectric field has been primarily focused on HfO2-based ferroelectric thin films owing to their exceptional scalability. Several reviews discussing the control of ferroelectricity and device applications exist. It is believed that a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms based on industrial requirements and concerns is necessary, such as the wake-up effect and fatigue mechanism. These mechanisms reflect the atomic structures of the materials as well as the device physics. Herein, a review focusing on phase stability and domain structure is presented. In addition, the recent progress in related ferroelectric memory devices and their challenges is briefly discussed.

Keywords: Domain structure; Fatigue; Ferroelectric field-effect transistor; Hfo2 ferroelectrics; Phase stability; Wake-up.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
The publications of HfO2 ferroelectrics to date.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Symmetry-reduction flowchart of low energy phases of HfO2 (Copyright 2014 American Physical Society).
Fig 3
Fig. 3
Light ion bombardment to induce ferroelectricity in HfO2 film. (a) The schematics for the ion bombardment process. (b) Scheme for dose of He ion bombardment. (c) resonance piezoresponse force microscopy (R-PFM). (d) R-PFM amplitude with different dose. (e) R-PFM, (f) band excitation PFM, (g) laser Doppler vibrometer PFM for dose of 1017 ions/cm2 (Copyright 2022 The American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Fig 4
Fig. 4
The high-resolution TEM techniques for phase identification in FE-HfO2. (a) The high-angle annular dark-field annular bright-field (STEM-ABF) image and O atomic displacement vector map ; (b) Atomic-resolution iDPC-STEM image of a HZO film (Copyright 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd.); (c) STEM-HAADF images for epitaxial CeO2—HfO2 thin films (Copyright 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd.); (d) STEM-HAADF of a pristine Gd doped HfO2 grain with different o-phase boundary (Copyright 2018 WILEY).
Fig 5
Fig. 5
Electronic band structure of HfO2 in presence of spin-orbit coupling. (a) Bands along the high-symmetry lines. (b) Two doubly degenerate bands in the kz = π/c plane around T point (Copyright 2017 the American Physical Society).
Fig 6
Fig. 6
Anti-ferroelectric type wake-up. (a) Typical P-V and I-V curves for the initial and cycled ferroelectric capacitors (Copyright 2021 physica status solidi(RRL) Rapid Research Letters published by Wiley-VCH GmbH). (b) The impact of in-plane tensile stress and the consequential ferroelastic switching (Copyright 2021 physica status solidi(RRL) Rapid Research Letters published by Wiley-VCH GmbH). (c) The observation of anti-ferroelectric Pbca phase and ferroelectric Pbc21 phase . (d) The effect of charged domain effect on the P-V hysteresis loops (Copyright 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd.). (e) Simulated vacancy diffusion of the MFM capacitors during wake-up (Copyright 2016 WILEY).
Fig 7
Fig. 7
Methods to eliminate wake-up effect in FE-HfO2. (a) Single-crystalline Y-doped HfO2 exhibiting wake-up free properties (Copyright 2021 Springer Nature). (b) Epitaxially r-phase ZrO2 films suppressing wake-up effect (Copyright 2021 American Chemical Society).
Fig 8
Fig. 8
Subcycling effect. (a) Current peak split-ups occur directly at the values of the cycling field amplitude. (b) Split-up of multiple peaks by subsequent field cycling with different field amplitudes (Copyright 2014 American Chemical Society).
Fig 9
Fig. 9
The multilevel memory performances of HZO-FeFETs. (a) ID–VG curves after programming and erasing. (b) Pulse sequences of initialization and modulation operations. (c) The MW and threshold voltage (VTH) values after various VD pulses. (d) Distribution of multilevel VTH. (e) Retention properties of the four VTH states in (d) (Copyright 2021 WILEY).
Fig 10
Fig. 10
The HfO2-based FTJ memristor. (a) The TEM image for the Pt/HZO/LSMO FTJ. (b) The resistance-voltage loops. (c) The long-term potentiation and long-term depression behaviors. (d) spike-timing-dependent plasticity behavior of the FTJ synapse (Copyright 2022 American Chemical Society).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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