(Invited) Teaching an Old Dog (ALD HfO₂) Some New Tricks

Abstract

HfO 2 has been implemented as gate oxide in high volume manufacturing since 45nm CMOS technology. It has also been used as the insulator in MIM decoupling capacitors to reduce noise (and thus enhance microprocessor performance) starting at 90nm high performance CMOS technology. There is a strong interest from the industry to re-use HfO 2 as memory element for AI applications. This paper reviews "past accomplishments" of HfO 2 and current efforts and challenges to enable HfO 2 as a resistive or ferroelectric memory material.