Comprehensive time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characterization of ferroelectric capacitors under bipolar stress conditions

In this work, we report the first comprehensive time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) study on ultra-thin HfO2-based ferroelectric under bipolar stress conditions. Here, field cycling is done on 7 nm Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitors at different temperatures and bipolar stress fields. Despite involving polarization switching and associated large internal electric fields, bipolar cycling of ferroelectric HZO is shown to exhibit similar time-dependent dielectric breakdown acceleration trends to that of traditional dielectrics like SiO2. Notably, the temperature acceleration of time-dependent dielectric breakdown shows a linear dependence on the stress field similar to SiO2. Further, the field acceleration of time-dependent dielectric breakdown in ferroelectric HZO, while exhibiting functionally similar temperature dependence to that of SiO2, demonstrates considerably greater sensitivity to temperature.