Ferroelectric Si-doped HfO 2 Capacitors for Next-Generation Memories

In this work, we assess the viability of a CMOS-compatible ferroelectric material, silicon-doped hafnium oxide (Si-HfO 2 ), for future capacitor-based ferroelectric memories by investigating process development, structural/electrical characterization, and memory device benchmarking. Ferroelectric capacitors with iridium electrodes and Si-HfO 2 thicknesses from 8 nm down to 4 nm are fabricated. The Si-HfO 2 layer is grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and subjected to a variety of post-processing annealing conditions. Polarization-voltage (PV) loops are taken to extract ferroelectric parameters such as remanent polarization $(\mathrm{P}_{\mathrm{R}})$ and coercive field (Ec), and standard memory tests for fatigue/endurance, retention, and imprint are conducted.