The effect of annealing temperature on the electrical properties of metal-ferroelectric (PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3)-insulator (ZrO2)-semiconductor (MFIS) thin-film capacitors

Metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) thin-film structures using PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT) as the ferroelectric layer and zirconium oxide (ZrO2) as the insulator layer were fabricated in this work. The leakage current and the C-V memory window were measured for MFIS capacitors with the PZT layer annealed at temperatures of 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, 700 °C. The dominant conduction mechanism of Al/PZT(290 nm)/ZrO2(15 nm)/Si structure is Poole-Frenkel emission in the temperature range of 300-425 K. Under a sweep voltage of 6 V, the largest memory window of 1.31 V was obtained for 500 °C-annealed samples. The memory window as a function of insulator thickness was also discussed. More serious charge injection is observed when the voltage was swept from negative to positive.