Vertical NAND in a Ferroelectric-driven Paradigm Shift

TL;DR

This paper proposes a hybrid ferroelectric-driven NAND architecture that combines ferroelectric polarization with charge trapping to enable scalable, low-voltage, energy-efficient flash memory beyond current physical and architectural limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid architecture that leverages ferroelectric polarization and charge trapping for improved scalability and energy efficiency in NAND flash memory.

Findings

Enables integration of over 1000 layers without process compromise

Provides low-voltage operation through polarization-enhanced tunneling

Reconfigures flash memory foundations for next-generation scalability

Abstract

Over the past decades, the relentless scaling and mass production of flash memory have underpinned the data-centric era. Yet charge-trap-based 3D NAND flash is now constrained by intrinsic physical and architectural limits, including reliability degradation at the device level, high operating power at the array level, and vertical scaling saturation at the system level. These bottlenecks hinder further advances in storage density and energy efficiency required by memory-centric computing. This Perspective outlines how coupling ferroelectric polarization with charge trapping can reconfigure the foundations of flash memory. In these hybrid architectures, polarization offers an energy-efficient pathway for charge modulation through enhanced Fowler-Nordheim tunneling, while trapped charges reinforce polarization-driven states to ensure stability. Such synergistic dynamics enable low-voltage operation and integration beyond one thousand layers without compromising process compatibility. We discuss the material, device, and architectural transitions required to realize this hybrid technology and chart future research directions to overcome the remaining scaling bottlenecks. Hybrid ferroelectric NAND extends conventional flash toward a scalable and energy-efficient platform, marking a paradigm shift for next-generation non-volatile memory.