Application of antiferroelectric like materials in non-volatile memory device

Abstract

The invention discloses an application of antiferroelectric like materials in a non-volatile memory device. Integrated devices comprising pinched hysteresis loop (PHL) materials in a capacitor or a transistor stack are disclosed. PHL materials include field induced ferroelectrics (FFE), anti-ferroelectric (AFE) and relaxor type ferroelectric (RFE) materials. Each integrated device includes a material stack with a PHL material layer disposed between two electrodes. Application of this material is dependent on inducing of an electric field bias over the stack. According to one option, electrodes having different workfunction values can be employed to induce the required built-in bias field and enable use of PHL materials. According to another option, a PHL material and charges, e.g., a charge interlayer, are disposed between two electrodes such that an induced built-in bias field appears. Integrated devices employing the PHL material stack include memories, transistors, and piezo- and pyroelectric devices.

Description

Background technique [0001] Ferroelectric (FE) materials are electrolyte crystals that exhibit spontaneous electrical polarization. The direction of the spontaneous polarization can be reversed between the two crystal-defined states by applying an external electric field. This material property of two distinct states can be used in memory applications to store information, ie, representations of two binary states 0 and 1 . [0002] Only at Curie temperature T c Below (this is also referred to as the phase transition temperature in the literature), ferroelectric materials exhibit ferroelectricity. Since the phase transition temperature is a material property, its value covers a wide range of temperatures. Above this temperature, the material exhibits paraelectric properties and behavior. [0003] Ferroelectric barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) triggered an increase in research on ferroelectric materials, since it is widely recognized that the existence of robust, chemically stabl...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

These types of materials cannot be used directly for non-volatile data storage

Sensing with zero voltage will cause depolarization, resulting in loss of stored information

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