Proton Radiation Effects on Y-Doped HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Memory

In this letter, ferroelectric memory performance of TiN/Y-doped-HfO2 (HYO)/TiN capacitors is investigated under proton radiation with 3-MeV energy and different fluence (5e13, 1e14, 5e14, and 1e15 ions/cm(2)). X-ray diffraction patterns confirm that the orthorhombic phase Pbc(21) of HYO film has no obvious change after proton radiation. Electrical characterization results demonstrate slight variations of the permittivity and ferroelectric hysteresis loop after proton radiation. The remanent polarization (2P(r)) of the capacitor decreases with increasing proton fluence. But the decreasing trend of 2P(r) is suppressed under high electric fields. Furthermore, the 2P(r) degradation with cycling is abated by proton radiation. These results show that the HYO-based ferroelectric memory is highly resistive to proton radiation, which is potentially useful for space applications.