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

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a ferroelectric non-volatile memory device using AlScN that reliably operates above 500°C, showing stable switching, high polarization, and compatibility with high-temperature electronics, addressing a critical gap in high-T resilient memory.

Contribution

It introduces a high-temperature ferroelectric NVM device based on AlScN that operates reliably at temperatures exceeding 500°C, with stable polarization and low operating voltages.

Findings

Reliable operation up to 600°C with clear ferroelectric switching.

High remnant polarization (> 100 μC/cm²) stable at high temperatures.

Over 1 million read cycles at 500°C with stable On-Off ratio.

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.