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Ferroelectric HfO2 thin film has been widely explored due to its superior characteristics, such as high switching speed, scalability, and long data retention. However, it still faces challenges in achieving good stability due to the wake-up and split-up effects. In this study, the sub-cycling behavior of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based ferroelectric capacitors (FeCaps) with various annealing temperatures is investigated. Our results suggest that the FeCaps with higher annealing temperatures demonstrate an increased resistance to the split-up effect and exhibit less distorted hysteresis loops compared to their lower-temperature counterparts. Symmetrical sub-cycling reveals pronounced current split-up and diminished switching current peaks in the FeCaps with lower annealing temperatures, whereas those annealed at higher temperatures show minimal current split-up and enhanced performance. Asymmetrical sub-cycling shows that lower annealing temperatures cause local domain pinning, while higher temperatures result in imprint-like behavior. Synchrotron-based extended x-ray absorption fine structure and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses reveal the potential of nitrogen doping in HfZrOx under high-temperature annealing processes, forming the Hf–N species to mitigate the amount of charged oxygen vacancy ( V O 2 + ) in the interfacial region. This study elucidates the relationship between V O 2 + distribution and the split-up effect during sub-cycling, providing critical insights for enhancing the sub-cycling performance and stability of HfO2-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluctuation in the minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) measurement is observed when monitoring the metal contamination for the furnace performing denuded zone formation, and the mechanism responsible for this phenomenon is examined in this paper. Among various possible causes, the oxygen precipitates are found to be the main contributor for this MCLT fluctuation because the amount of oxygen precipitates after denuded zone formation is strongly related to the initial oxygen concentration in the wafer and this makes the MCLT value liable to be affected even for tiny initial oxygen difference. A gate oxide recipe is suggested to be adopted for MCLT monitoring in furnace performing denuded zone formation to circumvent the problem. For the gate oxide recipe, not only is the monitoring result stable but it is feasible to produce MCLT test wafers with real products without sacrificing tool productivity. Index Terms--Denuded zone, gate oxide, metal contamination, minority carrier lifetime (MCLT), oxygen precipitates.

This paper is concerned with organic contamination from a partially fluorinated o-ring used in a furnace for a high-temperature process. The organic outgas was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared analysis of the furnace exhaust gas. Experiments from practical trench dynamic random access memory disclosed that outgassed organic contaminants from the nitride process would severely worsen the tunneling leakage current performance of the storage dielectric and lead to fatal yield loss even though the cell capacitance was almost uninfluenced. To eliminate this yield detractor requires several test runs prior to real production after installation of the partially fluorinated o-ring; otherwise, a fully fluorinated o-ring is needed. From a cost viewpoint, the latter is highly suggested. Index Terms--Fully fluorinatd o-ring, organic contamination, organic outgass, partially fluorinated o-ring high-temperature process.

HfZrOx-based p- and n-FeFETs with high-k AlON interfacial layer (IL) were employed as the platform to evaluate how $\gamma $ -rays radiation affects the memory performance and reliability characteristics. Even with radiation dose of 1 Mrad, the memory window (MW) and retention in terms of current ratio are hardly changed for both types of FeFETs due to the improved interfacial quality by the AlON IL. Although showing a smaller MW than n-FeFETs, p-FeFETs are considered with higher competitive advantages in terms of more robust endurance against radiation up to $10^{{5}}$ cycles by long-pulse ($10^{\text {-4}}$ s) cycling due to mitigated hot-electrons induced hole generation. Furthermore, the much-improved read latency for p-FeFETs also maintains after being subjected to 1 Mrad radiation doses. These promising results suggest that p-FeFETs possess a great potential for high-speed, high-reliability applications in the radiation environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]