Scalable and Stable Ferroelectric Non-Volatile Memory at > 500 ${}^{\circ }$C

Abstract

Non-volatile memory (NVM) devices that reliably operate at temperatures above 300 ${}^{\circ }$C are currently non-existent and remains a critically unmet challenge in the development of high-temperature (T) resilient electronics, necessary for many emerging, complex computing and sensing in harsh environments. Ferroelectric Al${}_x$Sc${}_{1-x}$N exhibits strong potential for utilization in NVM devices operating at very high temperatures (> 500 ${}^{\circ }$C) given its stable and high remnant polarization (PR) above 100 $\mu$C/cm${}^2$ with demonstrated ferroelectric transition temperature (TC) > 1000 ${}^{\circ }$C. Here, we demonstrate an Al${}_{0.68}$Sc${}_{0.32}$N ferroelectric diode based NVM device that can reliably operate with clear ferroelectric switching up to 600 ${}^{\circ }$C with distinguishable On and Off states. The coercive field (EC) from the Pulsed I-V measurements is found to be -5.84 (EC-) and +5.98 (EC+) (+/- 0.1) MV/cm at room temperature (RT) and found to decrease with increasing temperature up to 600 ${}^{\circ }$C. The devices exhibit high remnant polarizations (> 100 $\mu$C/cm${}^2$) which are stable at high temperatures. At 500 ${}^{\circ }$C, our devices show 1 million read cycles and stable On-Off ratio above 1 for > 6 hours. Finally, the operating voltages of our AlScN ferrodiodes are < 15 V at 600 ${}^{\circ }$C which is well matched and compatible with Silicon Carbide (SiC) based high temperature logic technology, thereby making our demonstration a major step towards commercialization of NVM integrated high-T computers.

MS and SI