Development of ferroelectric materials for memory applications

A detailed investigation on the electrical, structural, and fatigue characteristics of thin-film ferroelectric memory devices fabricated from potassium nitrate-phase III (KNO₃-III) was conducted. This research involved: (1) fabrication and processing of 16×16 (256-bit) capacitor-type memory devices; (2) electrical characterization, i.e. pulse switching, current-voltage, capacitance -voltage, and hysteresis measurements; (3) structural characterization, i.e. inert ion sputter depth profiles by an Auger electron spectrometer; and (4) fatigue testing, i.e. measurement of polarization charge as a function of read-write cycles. From the experimental results, it appears that the fatigue is most probably caused by the trapping of mobile ions at the metal-ferroelectric interfaces