Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2026
10:40
A Fabrication and Measurement Method for a Flexible Ferroelectric Element Based on Van Der Waals Heteroepitaxy
Published on: April 8, 2018
Thermally Stable HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Transistors for CMOS-Compatible Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Integrated
Fedor V Tikhonenko1, Mikhail Tarkov1, Vladimir P Popov1
1Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS, 13, Lavrentiev Avenue, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia.
Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
|August 12, 2026
Summary
Buried HfO2 ferroelectrics in silicon-ferroelectric-silicon (SFS) structures show enhanced thermal stability. These structures are promising for advanced CMOS applications and analog content addressable memory (ACAM).
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Solid-State Physics
- Electrical Engineering
Background:
- HfO2-based thin-film ferroelectrics are metastable and transition to a dielectric monoclinic phase upon heating.
- Buried ferroelectric layers in silicon-ferroelectric-silicon (SFS) structures, formed by SmartCut®, enhance thermal stability.
- Oxygen vacancies and tensile stresses in buried oxide layers stabilize ferroelectric phases, analogous to silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the thermal stability and characteristics of HfO2-based ferroelectrics in SFS structures.
- To evaluate the impact of Al impurities on ferroelectric properties in HfO2:Al2O3 (HAO) and (HfO2:ZrO2):Al2O3 (HZAO) nanolaminates.
- To explore the potential of SFS structures and integrated circuits (ICs) for CMOS gate insulators and analog content addressable memory (ACAM).
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of SFS structures using SmartCut® technology.
- Characterization of ferroelectric properties, including residual polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec).
- Thermal treatments at 900-1000 °C with varying buried oxide (BOX) thicknesses (tBOX = 10-20 nm, EOT = 1-2 nm).
- Simulations using TCAD Sentaurus and analytical models in LTspice.
Main Results:
- SFS structures exhibit improved thermal stability compared to non-buried ferroelectrics.
- Inserted Al impurities in HAO and HZAO nanolaminates influence the fraction of metastable ferroelectric phases.
- Simulations and models confirm the suitability of SFS structures for CMOS gate insulators and ACAM applications.
Conclusions:
- SFS structures offer a viable pathway for stabilizing HfO2-based ferroelectrics at high temperatures.
- The study demonstrates the potential of these structures for next-generation semiconductor devices, including ACAM.
- Optimized ferroelectric phase fractions and material compositions are crucial for device performance.
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