Evaluating the Robustness of Complementary Channel Ferroelectric FETs Against Total Ionizing Dose Toward Radiation-Tolerant Embedded Nonvolatile Memory

In this work, a thorough assessment of the robustness of complementary channel HfO2 ferroelectric FET (FeFET) against total ionizing dose (TID) radiation is conducted, with the goal of determining its suitability for use as high-performance and energy-efficient embedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM) for space applications. We demonstrate that: i) ferroelectric HfO2 thin film is robust against X-ray and proton irradiation; ii) FeFET exhibits a polarization state dependent radiation sensitivity where the high-VTH (HVT) state sees noticeable negative VTH shift and low-VTH (LVT) is immune to irradiation, irrespective of the channel type; iii) the state dependence is ascribed to the depolarization field in the HVT, which points toward the channel and facilitates the transport and trapping of radiation-generated holes close to the channel. In the future, radiation hardening techniques need to be considered.