Impact of specific failure mechanisms on endurance improvement for HfO2-based ferroelectric tunnel junction memory

We conducted a detailed investigation on failure mechanisms for the HfÖ2-based ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) memory during set/reset cycling endurance by combining methodology of the well-known reliability evaluation (time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB)) and the memory-specific evaluation (cycling endurance). As a consequence, we clarify that an increase of stress induced leakage current (SILC) after cycling is the main cause of the failure and demonstrate the cycling endurance enhancement by suppressing the SILC with optimizing the measurement sequence. Based on these results, we show a potential to achieve 10⁶ cycles.