Ferroelectric Tunnel Junction Optimization by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition
Jae Hur, Yuan-Chun Luo, Panni Wang, Nujhat Tasneem, Asif Islam Khan, Shimeng Yu
Abstract
Ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) based on alloyed HfO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> and ZrO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> is emerging as a promising two-terminal device candidate for the crossbar array for high density memory and compute-in-memory. FTJ is able to operate under non-destructive read mechanism as opposed to the ferroelectric capacitor. Herein, we report an optimized fabrication process that boosts the on-state current while suppressing the off-state current leading to an improved performance in Hf <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.5</inf> Zr <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.5</inf> O <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> (HZO) based FTJs. The plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited (PEALD) of HZO and the incorporation of an interlayer Al <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> O <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> are keys to improve the HZO-based FTJ in terms of the on/off ratio and cycling endurance.