The future of ferroelectric field-effect transistor technology

The discovery of ferroelectricity in oxides that are compatible with modern semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as hafnium oxide, has led to a re-emergence of the ferroelectric field-effect transistor in advanced microelectronics. A ferroelectric field-effect transistor combines a ferroelectric material with a semiconductor in a transistor structure. In doing so, it merges logic and memory functionalities at the single-device level, delivering some of the most pressing hardware-level demands for emerging computing paradigms. Here, we examine the potential of the ferroelectric field-effect transistor technologies in current embedded non-volatile memory applications and future in-memory, biomimetic and alternative computing models. We highlight the material- and device-level challenges involved in high-volume manufacturing in advanced technology nodes (<= 10 nm), which are reminiscent of those encountered in the early days of high-K-metal-gate transistor development. We argue that the ferroelectric field-effect transistors can be a key hardware component in the future of computing, providing a new approach to electronics that we term ferroelectronics. This Perspective examines the use of ferroelectric field-effect transistor technologies in current embedded non-volatile memory applications and future in-memory, biomimetic and alternative computing models, arguing that the devices will be a key component in the development of data-centric computing.