Ferroelectric tunneling element and memory applications which utilize the tunneling element

Patent · Tue Jul 20 04:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:1012818

Kalinin, Sergei V ^[1]; Christen, Hans M ^[1]; Baddorf, Arthur P ^[1]; Meunier, Vincent ^[1]; Lee, Ho Nyung ^[2]

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1. Knoxville, TN
2. Oak Ridge, TN

A tunneling element includes a thin film layer of ferroelectric material and a pair of dissimilar electrically-conductive layers disposed on opposite sides of the ferroelectric layer. Because of the dissimilarity in composition or construction between the electrically-conductive layers, the electron transport behavior of the electrically-conductive layers is polarization dependent when the tunneling element is below the Curie temperature of the layer of ferroelectric material. The element can be used as a basis of compact 1R type non-volatile random access memory (RAM). The advantages include extremely simple architecture, ultimate scalability and fast access times generic for all ferroelectric memories.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Patent Number(s): 7,759,713
• Application Number: 11/368,550
• OSTI ID: 1012818
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English