Depletion-type thin-film transistors with a ferroelectric insulator

M. W. J. Prins, S. E. Zinnemers, J. F. M. Cillessen, and J. B. Giesbers

Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 458 (1997); doi: 10.1063/1.118180

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Depletion-type thin-film transistors with a ferroelectric insulator
M. W. J. Prins,a) S. E. Zinnemers,b) J. F. M. Cillessen, and J. B. Giesbers
Philips Research Laboratories, Professor Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, the Netherlands
~Received 17 September 1996; accepted for publication 22 November 1996!
We present a study of electrical characteristics of ferroelectric field-effect transistors made of
PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 and SnO2 :Sb thin films. Due to properly chosen semiconductor parameters, the
transistor channel can be totally depleted by the ferroelectric charge displacement. The observed
remnant on/off ratio of the channel current amounts to 73103 . Pulse response measurements give
information on data retention, device speed, and the occurrence of charge injection. The results lead
to important design considerations for ferroelectric transistors. © 1997 American Institute of
Physics. @S0003-6951~97!04204-6#

Recent years have shown an increasing effort in the de- charge displacement of the ferroelectric material. Second, the
velopment of electronic devices utilizing complex oxidic thin band bending involved in totally depleting the semiconductor
films.1 From the point of view of physics and materials tech- channel (V bb) should not be so large as to cause depolariza-
nology, one of the most challenging devices is the thin-film tion of the ferroelectric layer. When the carrier concentration
field-effect transistor with a ferroelectric insulator. Its non- is determined by the dopant density N d , Q̃ and V bb are given
volatile ferroelectric polarization, low programming voltage, by4
and nondestructive readout make the ferroelectric transistor
interesting for memory applications. Recently, considerable eN d 2
progress has been made with thin-film depletion-type Q̃5eN d t s , V bb5 t , ~1!
2 e 0e r s
transistors.2,3 However, total depletion of the semiconductor
channel has not been achieved so far, resulting in a memory where e is the electronic charge, N d is the dopant density,
effect with a remnant on/off ratio close to unity. In this letter t s is the semiconductor layer thickness, and e r is the relative
we report complete channel depletion in thin-film ferroelec- dielectric constant of the semiconductor. Fig. 1 serves to
tric transistors made of PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 and SnO2 :Sb thin illustrate the implications for the range of values allowed for
films, leading to an on/off ratio well in excess of 103 . In N d and t s . As a realistic example, assume a transistor with a
addition, we clarify important electronic constraints that ap- ferroelectric insulator having a remnant polarization of the
ply to the design of ferroelectric transistors ~semiconductor order of 20 m C/cm2 and a coercive potential of 2 V. Lines of
parameters, device speed, and maximum on/off ratio!. constant charge density and constant band bending are
First we discuss the optimization of a transistor based on shown in Fig. 1. Complete semiconductor depletion can only
channel depletion, considering the semiconductor doping be reached if the point with coordinates t s and N d is located
density and layer thickness. In the linear regime of operation on the left-bottom side of the indicated lines. Using practical
the drain current in a field-effect transistor is given by4 layer thicknesses ~larger than 5 nm! and dopant concentra-
I D 5 m Q̃V D W/L ,where W and L are the width and length of tions ~larger than ;1018 cm23 ), we are left with a semicon-
the semiconductor channel, respectively, m is the charge mo- ductor parameter window that is roughly indicated by the
bility, and Q̃ ~units C/m2 ) is the areal charge density in the shaded area. Note that our parameter window is limited by
channel ~the influence of interface states or contact resistance the coercive potential of the ferroelectric layer and not by the
is neglected!. When the transistor is operated, the modulation
of the charge density in the channel results from the variation
of the electrostatic potential at the semiconductor surface
~band bending!. Due to the memory effect in a ferroelectric
transistor, the drain current can attain different values at zero
gate voltage. At zero gate voltage we define two remnant
states, namely the on-state of high drain current (I on D ), and
the off-state of low current (I off
D ). We would like to maxi-
mize the on-state current as well as the on/off ratio (I on D/
I off
D ). For a given transistor geometry (W/L), carrier mobil-
ity, and drain voltage, the on-state current can be maximized
by increasing the areal charge density in the channel. How-
ever, in order to be able to achieve total depletion of the
channel in the off state, two constraints apply. First, Q̃
should be smaller than or equal to the available remnant FIG. 1. Curves for a constant areal charge density of 20 m C/cm2 and a
constant band bending of 2 V @cf. Eq. ~1!, e r 510#, for a semiconductor thin
film with carrier density N d and thickness t s . The shaded area indicates the
a!
Electronic mail: [email protected] parameter window of practical interest for a transistor based on complete
b!
Also: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technol- channel depletion; the dark triangle gives the maximum on-state channel
ogy, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. conductance.

458 Appl. Phys. Lett. 70 (4), 27 January 1997 0003-6951/97/70(4)/458/3/$10.00 © 1997 American Institute of Physics
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 SnO2 :Sb films were grown with a thickness of 10 nm and a
dopant density of 431019 cm23 . These films have a sheet
resistance of 23104 V/h. Using R 21 h 5Q̃ m and Eq. ~1!, we
deduce a charge mobility of 8 cm2 /V s. Hall measurements
yield similar values for the carrier mobility,5 while the mea-
sured field-effect mobility is of the order of 1 cm2 /V s.
Panel ~b1! of Fig. 2 shows the measured displaced areal
charge density. The charge displacement shows a hysteresis
behavior with a remnant charge density of 17 m C/cm2 and a
coercive voltage of 2.5 V. Hysteresis is observed in the trans-
fer characteristic ~panel b2! with the same sense of rotation;
this proves that the memory effect is driven by the ferroelec-
tric charge displacement.6 The gate leakage current
(I G <0.5 nA! disturbs the transfer characteristic below
23 V. At zero gate voltage, the high-current on state and
low-current off state are indicated in the figure. The on-state
current is limited by the resistance of the source and drain
contacts. The nonzero off-state current we attribute to carrier
transport through interface or gap states in the semiconduc-
tor. For transistors with a channel length of 20 m m or less,
we observe on/off ratios of the order of 103 , with a maxi-
FIG. 2. ~a! Schematic cross section of the oxidic thin-film transistor. ~b1! mum of 73103 . To our knowledge, an on/off ratio of this
The electrical charge per unit gate area displaced in the ferroelectric insula- size has not been previously reported for oxidic thin-film
tor ~Q G ), as a function of the gate voltage (V G ). The displaced charge is
measured with an external capacitor C ~see inset!. ~b2! Transfer character- transistors.9
istic ~drain current I D versus V G ). The source is at zero potential and When varying the semiconductor parameters, different
V D 50.1 V. types of transfer characteristics are observed. Extreme cases
~low and high sheet resistance! are shown in Fig. 3. Curve
type ~a! is observed for semiconductor films with a thickness
available polarization. A maximum on-state current is
above 10 nm. The transistors show a proper hysteresis, how-
achieved when the product N d t s is maximized; this preferred
ever with a low on/off ratio. This is due to the fact that the
region is indicated by the dark triangle.
semiconductor film contains too much charge, so that total
The staggered thin-film transistor with bottom-gate de-
depletion cannot be reached. Curve ~b! shows the maximum
sign is depicted in Fig. 2~a!. The device consists of an
on/off ratio achieved at present. Curves of type ~c! are ob-
n-type Sb-doped SnO2 semiconductor layer, PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3
served for thin semiconductor films with a high sheet resis-
as a ferroelectric insulator, and a SrRuO3 gate electrode,
tance ~of the order of a MV/h or larger!. For these transis-
each layer prepared by pulsed laser deposition ~for more de-
tors, the hysteresis behavior is strongly reduced in the
tails we refer to Ref. 3!. For protection purposes the semi-
transfer characteristic as well as in the charge displacement
conductor channel has been capped with 10 nm of insulating
curve. We attribute this behavior to an insufficient field
BaZrO3 . The 2-cm-diameter wafers contain resistance test
sweep in the ferroelectric material. For negative gate volt-
structures, Hall bars, diodes, and transistors. We show data
ages ~channel depletion! the applied voltage essentially drops
measured under ambient conditions, for transistors with a
across the semiconductor channel instead of across the ferro-
source-drain distance ~L! between 5 and 100 m m and a chan-
electric insulator; as a result, the ferroelectric material does
nel width ~W! of 300 m m. The source and drain contact pads
not pass through a saturated loop, but effectuates a minor
consist of either Mo or degenerately doped In2 O3 :Sn. The
hysteresis loop with low coercivity. Instead of comparing the
contact resistance is 5–20 kV, caused by the presence of the
characteristics of different wafers under the same measure-
BaZrO3 capping layer. Following the analysis of Fig. 1,
ment conditions ~cf. Fig. 3!, one can also compare the char-
acteristics of one sample for different conditions of data ac-
quisition. Interestingly, we could weakly observe the same
trends as shown in Fig. 3 by cooling down a sample to cryo-
genic temperatures @shift towards type ~c! due to a loss of
free carriers# or by exciting with radiation of sufficient en-
ergy @shift towards type ~a! due to an increase of the free
carrier density#.
Fig. 4 demonstrates the memory retention of our transis-
tors. We observe an increase of the off-state current and a
FIG. 3. Different types of transfer characteristics observed for wafers with decrease of the on-state current with time, i.e., converging
different semiconductor films: ~a! for thick films with a low sheet resistance, time evolution curves. The off-state drain current increases
~b! showing the optimized on/off ratio, and ~c! for thin films with a high
sheet resistance. Note that the panels have equal voltage and current scales.
by a factor of 1.6 every time decade; after a relaxation time
The source is at zero potential and V D 50.1 V. The gate leakage current of 3 h, the off-state drain current is still more than two orders
(I G <0.5 nA! disturbs the transfer characteristics at negative voltages. of magnitude smaller than the on-state current. We attribute

Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 70, No. 4, 27 January 1997 Prins et al. 459
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FIG. 4. Time evolution of the drain current, recorded with V D 50.1 V and FIG. 5. On-state and off-state current ~a! as a function of pulse height for
V G 50 V. At t50 a gate voltage pulse was applied, with an amplitude of 16 fixed pulse width, and ~b! as a function of pulse width for constant pulse
V for the on state and 26 V for the off state. height; recorded with V D 50.1 V and V G 50 V. Note that the current scales
are equal.

these observations to a slow relaxation of the ferroelectric

polarization, possibly caused by the depolarizing potential strongly different transfer characteristics. The maximum
~band bending! of the semiconductor layer. remnant on/off ratio observed amounts to 73103 . The low
The switching voltage and switching speed can be stud-
off-state current is caused by total depletion of the semicon-
ied by applying pulses of varying pulse height and width.
ductor channel; the required band-bending potential is deliv-
The transistor of Fig. 5 shows a maximum on/off ratio for
pulses of 63.5 V. At higher voltages the off current in- ered by the coercivity of the ferroelectric charge displace-
creases due to charge injection; the on current is limited by ment. Finally, the present study has clarified important
the contact resistance of the source and drain pads. The design rules for depletion-type ferroelectric transistors.
switching time can be estimated from the switched charge The authors thank H. van Esch for sample processing.
and the current drive:
t .DQ̃WLR max /V, ~2!
where DQ̃ is the switched charge per unit gate area, V is the
1
applied gate voltage, and R max is the maximum channel re- Some device applications of oxidic thin films are described in Mater. Res.
sistance encountered during the switching procedure. In tran- Soc. Bull. 21, ~1996!.
2
H. Lin, N. J. Wu, K. Xie, X. Y. Li, and A. Ignatiev, Appl. Phys. Lett. 65,
sistors with a transfer characteristic of rectangular shape, the
953 ~1994!; Y. Watanabe, ibid. 66, 1770 ~1995!; C. H. Ahn, J.-M.
maximum channel resistance equals the off-state resistance. Triscone, N. Archibald, M. Decroux, R. H. Hammond, T. H. Geballe, O.
In our devices the switched charge density is about Fischer, and M. R. Beasley, Science 269, 373 ~1995!; Z. W. Dong, Z.
50 m C/cm2 @see Fig. 2~a!#; hence, for the transistor of Fig. 5 Trajanovic, T. Boettcher, I. Takeuchi, V. Talyansky, C.-H. Chen, R.
(W5300 m m, L520 m m, V55 V, R max.0.5 MV) we cal- Ramesh, and T. Venkatesan ~to be published!.
culate a required switching time of 300 m s. This value agrees 3
M. W. J. Prins, K.-O. Grosse-Holz, G. Müller, J. F. M. Cillessen, J. B.
with the data of Fig. 5~b!. The experimentally determined Giesbers, R. P. Weening, and R. M. Wolf, Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 3650
speed of our devices is well described by Eq. ~2!. ~1996!.
4
S. M. Sze, Physics of semiconductor devices ~Wiley, New York, 1981!.
For applications, it is important to consider operational 5
K.-O. Grosse-Holz, J. F. M. Cillessen, M. W. J. Prins, P. W. M. Blom, R.
limitations of ferroelectric transistors. The maximum on- M. Wolf, L. F. Feiner, and R. Waser, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 401,
state channel conductance is given by m Q̃W/L. On the other 67 ~1996!.
6
hand, the minimum off-state conductance is directly related When charge injection is the cause of the memory effect, the transfer
to the required switching speed, described by Eq. ~2!. As a characteristic has a sense of rotation opposite to the sense of rotation of
result, the on/off ratio is subject to the following upper limit: the charge displacement. This is described in Refs. 7 and 8, for example.
7
S.-Y. Wu, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 21, 499 ~1974!; Ferroelectrics
I on m Q̃W/L mVt 11, 379 ~1976!.
& 5 . ~3! 8
C. H. Seager, D. McIntyre, B. A. Tuttle, and J. Evans, Integr. Ferroelectr.
I off
DQ̃WL/V t L2 6, 47 ~1995!; C. H. Seager, D. C. McIntyre, W. L. Warren, and B. A.
Tuttle, Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 2660 ~1996!.
Here we assumed that Q̃ equals DQ̃, which applies for a 9
Previously, large memory effects were reported in ferroelectric transistors
transistor based on total depletion. As an example, using a with a bulk constituent, i.e., made of a semiconductor thin film on a
carrier mobility of 20 cm2 /V s, and a switchable areal charge ceramic ferroelectric substrate ~e.g., Ref. 10! or made of a ferroelectric
density of 50 m C/cm2 , we find a maximum channel conduc- thin film on a crystalline Si substrate ~e.g., Ref. 11!. In all-thin-film ferro-
tance of 1 mS per square; using L51 m m and V52 V, we electric transistors, memory effects were reported with a remnant on/off
find a maximum on/off ratio of 43103 for t 51 m s, and a ratio slightly above unity ~see Refs. 2 and 3! ~note that we quoted the
results of Watanabe incorrectly in our publication ~Ref. 3!.
maximum on/off ratio of 40 for t 510 ns. Clearly, the opti- 10
J. C. Crawford and F. L. English, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 16, 525
mum design should be determined by the application envis- ~1969!.
aged. 11
Y. Nakao, T. Nakamura, A. Kamisawa, and H. Takasu, Integr. Ferroelectr.
In summary, we have fabricated ferroelectric transistors 6, 23 ~1995!; T. Nakamura, Y. Nakao, A. Kamisawa, and H. Takasu, ibid.
with different values of channel conductance, leading to 9, 179 ~1995!.

460 Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 70, No. 4, 27 January 1997 Prins et al.
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