Circuit Models for Ferroelectrics—Part I: Physics of Polarization Switching

We present a physical circuit model of ferroelectric (FE) polarization switching for the analysis and design of hybrid FE-CMOS circuits. Stochastic geometry is applied to domain nucleation, growth, and coalescence under arbitrary voltage and current input signals. The circuit model is first constructed for ideal FE capacitors and then extended to the realistic effects of lateral scaling, anisotropic growth, and disorder in polycrystalline films. Reliability degradation by imprint and fatigue is also incorporated. The interaction of model parameters and circuit design for three different nonvolatile latch topologies is presented in Part II.