Electric Field Gradient‐Controlled Domain Switching for Size Effect‐Resistant Multilevel Operations in HfO2‐Based Ferroelectric Field‐Effect Transistor

The ferroelectric field‐effect transistor (FeFET) is a promising memory technology due to its high switching speed, low power consumption, and high capacity. Since the recent discovery of ferroelectricity in Si‐doped HfO2 thin films, HfO2‐based materials have received considerable interest for the d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced functional materials 2021-04, Vol.31 (17), p.n/a
Main Authors: Zeng, Binjian, Liu, Chen, Dai, Siwei, Zhou, Pingan, Bao, Keyu, Zheng, Shuaizhi, Peng, Qiangxiang, Xiang, Jinjuan, Gao, Jianfeng, Zhao, Jie, Liao, Min, Zhou, Yichun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analog synapses
CMOS
Coercivity
Domains
Electric fields
ferroelectric field‐effect transistors
Ferroelectric materials
Ferroelectricity
Hafnium oxide
HfO 2 ferroelectric thin films
Materials science
Multilevel
multilevel memories
multi‐step domain switching
Power consumption
Semiconductor devices
Size effects
Switching
Thin films
Transistors
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Summary:The ferroelectric field‐effect transistor (FeFET) is a promising memory technology due to its high switching speed, low power consumption, and high capacity. Since the recent discovery of ferroelectricity in Si‐doped HfO2 thin films, HfO2‐based materials have received considerable interest for the development of FeFET, particularly considering their excellent complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility, relatively low permittivity, and high coercive field. However, the multilevel capability is limited by the device size, and multidomain switching tends to vanish when the channel length of the HfO2‐based FeFET approaches 30 nm. Here, multiple nonvolatile memory states are realized by tuning the electric field gradient across the Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) ferroelectric thin film along the channel direction of FeFET. The multi‐step domain switching can be readily and directionally controlled in the HZO‐FeFETs, with a very low variation. Moreover, multiple nonvolatile memory states or multi‐step domain switching can be effectively controlled in the FeFETs with a channel length less than 20 nm. This study suggests the possibility to implement multilevel memory operations and mimic biological synapse functions in highly scaled HfO2‐based FeFETs. Here, an electric field gradient is applied to control domain switching, realizing 2‐bit/cell operation as well as improved potentiation and depression behaviors of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 ferroelectric field‐effect transistors (FeFETs). Further simulation studies suggest that this strategy works even when the channel length of the FeFETs is less than 20 nm.
ISSN:1616-301X
1616-3028
DOI:10.1002/adfm.202011077