Highly stable electrical performances of HfO2-based ferroelectric devices under proton irradiation

The proton irradiation effects on TiN/Zr-doped HfO2 (HZO)/TiN ferroelectric capacitors are investigated in this work. Electrical characterization results show that the change of ferroelectric hysteresis loop and leakage current are negligible under proton irradiation up to fluence 1.0 × 1012 ions/cm2. The decrease of permittivity after irradiation is due to the degradation of the effective carrier concentration in Si substrate induced by displacement damage. The results demonstrate that HZO ferroelectric material is immune to radiation and has the application potential to be used in space system.