Hot atom damage (HAD) limited TDDB lifetime of ferroelectric memories

The AC/DC dielectric lifetime (TDDB) of ferroelectric materials have traditionally been interpreted similar to a classical gate oxide. In this paper, we demonstrate a fundamentally different kinetic mechanism of damage involving hot atom (HAD) in ferroelectric materials to interpret the severe reduction of AC lifetime, coupled with the counterintuitive increase in the Weibull slope. We show that, beyond a critical operating condition, the atoms at the domain walls are heated by the AC field, as they shuttle across the double-well energy landscape of such materials. An elegantly simple analytical model (i) interprets critical TDDB experiments, (ii) suggests strategies (e.g., pulse shaping) to minimize HAD significantly, and (iii) predicts device lifetime at arbitrary operating conditions.