Multilevel Operation of Ferroelectric FET Memory Arrays Considering Current Percolation Paths Impacting Switching Behavior

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Franz Muller - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Sourav De - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Ricardo Olivo - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Maximilian Lederer - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Abdelrahman Altawil - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Raik Hoffmann - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Thomas Kampfe - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Tarek Ali - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Stefan Dunkel - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Halid Mulaosmanovic - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Johannes Muller - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Sven Beyer - , Global Foundries Dresden (Author)
  • Konrad Seidel - , Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Author)
  • Gerald Gerlach - , Chair of Solid State Electronics (Author)

Abstract

This letter reports multi-level-cell (MLC) operation of ferroelectric FETs (FeFET) arranged in AND-connected memory arrays with a bit-error rate (BER) of 4% when writing a random data pattern. The FeFETs with HfO2 have been embedded in GlobalFoundries 28 nm bulk high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology and are based on a metal-ferroelectric-isolator-semiconductor (MFIS) stack. Due to the direct field influence of the ferroelectric layer onto the Si-channel current percolation paths (CPPs) dominate the state transition behavior. This results in device-to-device variation and contributes to the asymmetry in programming and erasing progression. For array operation, write schemes and state-preserving inhibit schemes are evaluated to cope with the influence of the CPPs. Finally, this enables us to take advantage of the MLC capabilities of FeFETs on the array level, further enhancing the storage density of the 1T memory cells. Robust retention is proven for the MLC states at 85°C as well as reliable rewritability of the memory array with changing input patterns.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)757-760
Number of pages4
JournalIEEE electron device letters
Volume44
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-7062-9598/work/174430561

Keywords

Keywords

  • array, FeFET, Ferroelectric, hafnium oxide, memory, multilevel