Trapping Dynamics and Endurance in HfO2-FeFETs: An Insight From Charge Pumping

We investigate endurance degradation in hafnium oxide ( $\textit {H}fO_{{2}}$ )-based ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs) by analyzing interface ( ${\textit {N}}_{\mathbf {\textit {it}}}$ ) and near-interface oxide traps ( ${\textit {N}}_{\mathbf {\textit {ox}}}$ ) using a two-level charge pumping (CP) technique. After $10_{{4}}$ program (PG) / erase (ER) cycles at ±5 V, 100ns, ${\textit {N}}_{\mathbf {\textit {it}}}$ increases by $\sim 2\times $ , and the memory window (MW) reduces from 1.2V to 0.45V. Temperature-dependent measurements reveal accelerated trap generation above $50~^{\circ }$ C, with decreasing charge-pumping current ( ${\textit {I}}_{\mathbf {\textit {CP}}^{\mathbf {\textit {max}}}}$ ) due to deeper oxide trap occupation. Pulse parameter tuning shows that longer rise/fall times, and shorter hold durations mitigate ${\textit {N}}_{\mathbf {\textit {it}}}$ accumulation and delay memory window collapse. The extracted average interface trap density ( ${\textit {D}}_{\mathbf {\textit {it}}}$ ) reaches $\sim {4}\times {10}^{{12}}$ cm²eV¹ after cycling. These results emphasize the role of trap engineering in improving FeFET endurance for scaled non-volatile memory applications.