Effects of scaling thickness and niobium doping level on ferroelectric thin film capacitor memory operation

Abstract

Ferroelectric thin film capacitors (FTFCs) are the basic storage element in ferroelectric memory cells. In this paper, the effects of varying film thickness and niobium doping level on electrical properties for memory applications in FTFCs are examined. Reliability issues such as leakage current and fatigue are studied while the niobium doping level is varied. We find that reducing film thickness (in 0.3 /spl mu/m range) by a factor of 2 should be accompanied by addition of niobium doping up to 5% in order to maintain reliable capacitor operation.