Proton Radiation Effects on Y-Doped HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Memory

In this letter, ferroelectric memory performance of TiN/Y-doped-HfO
₂
(HYO)/TiN capacitors is investigated under proton radiation with 3-MeV energy and different fluence (5e13, 1e14, 5e14, and 1e15 ions/cm
²
). X-ray diffraction patterns confirm that the orthorhombic phase Pbc
₂₁
of HYOfilm has no obvious change after proton radiation. Electrical characterization results demonstrate slight variations of the permittivity and ferroelectric hysteresis loop after proton radiation. The remanent polarization (2P
_r
) of the capacitor decreases with increasing proton fluence. But the decreasing trend of 2P
_r
is suppressed under high electric fields. Furthermore, the 2P
_r
degradation with cycling is abated by proton radiation. These results show that the HYO-based ferroelectric memory is highly resistive to proton radiation, which is potentially useful for space applications.