A Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Non-Volatile Programmable Capacitor Based on a HfAlO<i>ₓ</i> Ferroelectric Film

Abstract

In this letter, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) ferroelectric capacitor with non-volatile programmable capacitance. By switching the polarization of the Al-doped HfO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ferroelectric insulator with the external electric field, the depletion width of the semiconductor can be modulated, leading to the continuously adjustable capacitance of the device. Due to the non-volatility of ferroelectricity, the programmed capacitance is stable without the constant DC bias. We also proposed some potential applications of the capacitor in the data storage and circuit design.