Impact of Proton Radiation on Zr-Doped HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Memory

HfO2-based ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) has attracted tremendous attention in the field of data storage. However, the radiation performance and tolerance of FeRAM have not been investigated comprehensively. In this work, the electrical and structural properties of the W/TiN/Zr-doped HfO2(HZO)/TiN ferroelectric memory after radiation by 5 MeV proton at room temperature (RT) and low temperature (LT) were studied. After performing electrical and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) characterization, it was demonstrated that the radiation effect of HZO MFM ferroelectric memory strongly depends on the radiation temperature. The dielectric constant (Ɛr) and the remanent polarization (2Pr) values of the capacitor first decreased and then increased with the increasing of fluence at RT. Once the HZO thin film was radiated by protons at extremely low temperature, the performance of the HZO memory would be completely degraded. The increased ferroelectric properties due to RT radiation will be partially weakened after annealing at room temperature. The ferroelectric properties of the samples radiated by LT proton radiation would be restored due to the domain unpinning effect.