Zirconium‐Rich Strategy in Ultrathin Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 toward Back‐End‐of‐Line‐Compatible Ferroelectric Random Access Memory

作者：Yinchi Liu, Jiajia Tao, Xiaoyu Dou, Kangli Xu, Yuchun Li, Handong Zhu, Hongliang Lu, Yanping Li, Chi Liu, Jiezhi Chen, Lin Chen, Shijin Ding, Jixuan Wu, Wen-Jun Liu · 发表于：Advanced Science · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1002/advs.202509384 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Semiconductor materials and interfaces、Rare-earth and actinide compounds、Semiconductor materials and devices

Abstract HfO 2 ‐based ferroelectric devices have garnered lots of attention in embedded memory due to its exceptional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility as well as sub‐10 nm scalability. Nevertheless, challenges such as double remanent polarization (2 P r ) degradation and thermal budget issues while scaling the Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) thickness have limited its integration in high‐intensity memory and high‐speed computing. Here, an effective strategy involving the zirconium‐rich layer (Zr‐RL) is developed to address this dilemma. Remarkably low operating voltage of 1.0 V, alongside exceptional ferroelectricity with 2 P r of 43.4 µ C cm −2 and a coercive voltage of 0.75 V are achieved in the ferroelectric capacitor with sub‐6 nm HZO/Zr‐RL/HZO stack. First‐principles calculations reveal that the incorporation of Zr‐RL induces a 0.76% tensile strain, which effectively reduces the growth barrier and surface energy of the ferroelectric phase, thereby facilitating the crystallization of the HZO/Zr‐RL/HZO stack under a low thermal budget. Moreover, robust reliability, including a high breakdown voltage of 3.69 V, superior endurance characteristics exceeding 10 11 cycles, and excellent retention time of 10 years are demonstrated in the ferroelectric capacitor with HZO/Zr‐RL/HZO stack. Our investigations provide new insights into building a low‐voltage operation, high ferroelectricity and reliability, long data retention, and back‐end‐of‐line‐compatible ferr...