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A scalable ferroelectric non-volatile memory operating at 600 °C

Nature Electronics (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Non-volatile memory devices that can operate reliably at high temperature are required for the development of extreme environment electronics. However, creating such devices remains challenging. Here we report a non-volatile memory device that is based on an aluminium scandium nitride (Al0.68Sc0.32N) ferroelectric diode and can operate at temperatures of up to 600 °C. The devices are composed of metal–insulator–metal structures of nickel/AlScN/platinum grown on 4-inch silicon wafers. They exhibit clear ferroelectric switching up to 600 °C with distinct on and off states. At 600 °C, the devices exhibit one million read cycles and readable on–off ratios above 1 for over 60 h. The operating voltages of the AlScN ferrodiodes are less than 15 V at 600 °C and are thus compatible with silicon-carbide-based high-temperature logic technology.

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Fig. 1: Illustrations of the ferrodiode device.
Fig. 2: Ferrodiode d.c. response to temperature.
Fig. 3: Ferrodiode fast current response to triangle wave and PUND.
Fig. 4: Ferrodiode read and write endurance and retention performance.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

D.J., R.H.O., D.K.P. and G.K. acknowledge primary support for this work from AFRL via the FAST programme. D.J. and K.-H.K. acknowledge primary support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) GHz-THz program FA9550-23-1-0391. N.G. and D.M. gratefully acknowledge support from AFOSR GHz-THz program grant number FA9550-24RYCOR011. Z.H. acknowledges support from the VIPER programme of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology at Penn. V.S.P. acknowledges support for this work from AFRL via the National Research Council (NRC) senior research associate fellowship programme. A portion of the sample fabrication, assembly and characterization were carried out at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Program grant NNCI-1542153. Additional support for the Nanoscale Characterization Facility at the Singh Center was provided by the NSF through the University of Pennsylvania Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) (DMR-2309043).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Gwangwoo Kim

    Present address: Department of Engineering Chemistry, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea

  2. Pariasadat Musavigharavi

    Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

  3. These authors contributed equally: Dhiren K. Pradhan, David C. Moore.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Dhiren K. Pradhan, Gwangwoo Kim, Yunfei He, Pariasadat Musavigharavi, Kwan-Ho Kim, Nishant Sharma, Zirun Han, Xingyu Du, Roy H. Olsson III & Deep Jariwala

  2. Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, USA

    David C. Moore, Venkata S. Puli, W. Joshua Kennedy & Nicholas R. Glavin

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Pariasadat Musavigharavi & Eric A. Stach

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Zirun Han

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Contributions

D.J., R.H.O., D.K.P. and G.K. conceived the devices, measurements and sample fabrication idea/concepts. D.K.P. and G.K. fabricated the samples with assistance from X.D. and measured them at RT with assistance from Y.H., N.S. and K.-H.K. D.K.P. and D.C.M. performed all the high-temperature measurements with assistance from V.S.P. D.K.P. and D.C.M. analysed all the electrical data. Z.H. performed the theoretical fits to the high-temperature I–V data. P.M. performed electron microscopy and data analysis under supervision of E.A.S. D.J., R.H.O., N.R.G. and W.J.K. supervised and guided the project. D.K.P. and D.C.M. wrote the manuscript. All authors provided their inputs to the paper and Supplementary Information.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to W. Joshua Kennedy, Nicholas R. Glavin, Roy H. Olsson III or Deep Jariwala.

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D.J., R.H.O., D.K.P., G.K. and Y.H. have a provisional patent filed on this work. The authors declare no other competing interests.

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Nature Electronics thanks Akira Sakai, Hiroshi Suga and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–17, discussion and Tables 1 and 2.

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Pradhan, D.K., Moore, D.C., Kim, G. et al. A scalable ferroelectric non-volatile memory operating at 600 °C. Nat Electron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-024-01148-6

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