Huge Reduction of the Wake-Up Effect in Ferroelectric HZO Thin Films

Abstract

The wake-up effect is a major issue for ferroelectric HfO2-based memory devices. Here, two TiN/HZO/TiN structures deposited by magnetron sputtering on silicon are compared. The maximum remanant polarization is higher than 21 μC/cm2 for both samples, but a strong difference is observed in the electrical behavior. For the mesa sample, the difference between the maximum and initial remanent polarization is only 3 μC/cm2, whereas it is around 14 μC/cm2 in the non-mesa case. We discuss the root causes of these behaviors in light of GIXRD results.