Multistate resistance in TaN/(Hf,Zr)O2/Ta ferroelectric tunnel junctions

Henry, M. David; Stoltzfus, David; Lenox, Megan K.; Jaszewski, Samantha T.; Young, Travis; Ihlefeld, Jon F.

doi:10.1063/5.0256686

Multistate resistance in TaN/(Hf,Zr)O₂/Ta ferroelectric tunnel junctions

Journal Article · Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0256686· OSTI ID:2556922

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Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)

Ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) utilizing hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) have emerged as promising non-volatile memory elements for microelectronics, compatible with back end of line (BEOL) complementary–metal–oxide semiconductor fabrication. This study investigates asymmetric electrode TaN/HZO/Ta devices with a 6 nm thick HZO layer as FTJs for multistate resistive memory applications. The individual FTJs exhibit a resistance ratio exceeding 10× when utilized as a binary state device, with pulsing between −1.7 and +1.4 V to set the high resistance state (HRS) and low resistance state (LRS), respectively. Following with reduced write voltage pulses allows the ferroelectric device to operate with a selection of over 32 distinct resistance states (2⁵ bits) between the LRS and HRS. This work then explores the stability of the resistance states during write/read pulse cycling, along with the stability of the state after multiple read pulses. Accessing the multibit state shows stability within 50 reads with the binary state remaining stable for more than 4000 reads pulses. With their multistate tunability and versatility, FTJs hold promise as BEOL memory elements for compute-in-memory (CiM) arrays, binary digital memory, or weighted vector matrix multiplication applications with low power consumption during computations.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 2556922

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2584280

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 14 Vol. 137; ISSN 0021-8979; ISSN 1089-7550

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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