Selector-less Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions by Stress Engineering and an Imprinting Effect for High-Density Cross-Point Synapse Arrays

Abstract

In the quest for highly scalable and three-dimensional (3D) stackable memory components, ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) crossbar architectures are promising technologies for nonvolatile logic and neuromorphic computing. Most FTJs, however, require additional nonlinear devices to suppress sneak-path current, limiting large-scale arrays in practical applications. Moreover, the giant tunneling electroresistance (TER) remains challenging due to their inherent weak polarization. Here, we present that the employment of a diffusion barrier layer as well as a bottom metal electrode having a significantly low thermal expansion coefficient has been identified as an important way to enhance the strain, stabilize the ferroelectricity, and manage the leakage current in ultrathin hafnia film, achieving a high TER of 100, negligible resistance changes even up to 10⁸ cycles, and a high switching speed of a few tens of nanoseconds. Also, we demonstrate that the usage of an imprinting effect in a ferroelectric capacitor induced by an ionized oxygen vacancy near the electrode results in highly asymmetric current–voltage characteristics with a rectifying ratio of 1000. Notably, the proposed FTJ exhibits a high density array size (>4k) with a securing read margin of 10%. These findings provide a guideline for the design of high-performance and selector-free FTJ devices for large-scale crossbar arrays in neuromorphic applications.