Investigation of the endurance of FE-HfO2 devices by means of TDDB studies

Ferroelectric HfO2 devices are potential candidates for non-volatile memory applications. However, they often exhibit a pinched hysteresis, which requires the application of cycles to “wake-up” the device. In this paper, endurance of FE-Al: HfO2 MIM is investigated using TDDB measurements. An improvement in TDDB lifetime is observed with cycling. A hypothesis involving rearrangement of defects is proposed to explain this behavior.

[1]  Anabela Veloso,et al.  Reliability screening of high-k dielectrics based on voltage ramp stress , 2007, Microelectron. Reliab..

[2]  G. Groeseneken,et al.  Reliability Study of Ferroelectric Al:HfO2 Thin Films for DRAM and NAND Applications , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[3]  O. Pirrotta,et al.  Leakage current through the poly-crystalline HfO2: Trap densities at grains and grain boundaries , 2013 .

[4]  Stefan Slesazeck,et al.  Physical Mechanisms behind the Field‐Cycling Behavior of HfO2‐Based Ferroelectric Capacitors , 2016 .

[5]  U. Böttger,et al.  Ferroelectricity in hafnium oxide thin films , 2011 .

[6]  Guido Groeseneken,et al.  New insights in the relation between electron trap generation and the statistical properties of oxide breakdown , 1998 .

[7]  Sergei V. Kalinin,et al.  Ferroelectric hafnium oxide: A CMOS-compatible and highly scalable approach to future ferroelectric memories , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting.

[8]  R. Degraeve,et al.  Constant current charge-to-breakdown: Still a valid tool to study the reliability of MOS structures? , 1998, 1998 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings. 36th Annual (Cat. No.98CH36173).

[9]  Christoph Adelmann,et al.  Ferroelectricity in Gd-Doped HfO2 Thin Films , 2012 .

[10]  L. Goux,et al.  Kinetic defect distribution approach for modeling the transient, endurance and retention of a-VMCO RRAM , 2017, 2017 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS).

[11]  H. Bender,et al.  Evaluation of the electrical contact area in contact-mode scanning probe microscopy , 2015 .

[12]  C. Hwang,et al.  Ferroelectric properties and switching endurance of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films on TiN bottom and TiN or RuO2 top electrodes , 2014 .