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Nanoelectronics

Ferroelectric devices show potential

Nature Nanotechnology volume 7, pages 83–85 (2012)Cite this article

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Ferroelectric tunnel junctions can be operated as non-volatile memories with low write powers.

The quest for a non-volatile memory technology that offers high storage density, high read and write speeds, and low power consumption has triggered intense research into new materials, mechanisms and device architectures. Among the successful memory technologies to emerge from these efforts have been the atomic switch1, the resistive RAM2,3 and the magnetic tunnel junction4,5. Now, writing in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers from France, the UK and the US report a substantial advance in an alternative approach to non-volatile memory technology based on ferroelectric tunnel junctions6. In particular they have shown that it is possible to achieve high off/on ratios, and very low write powers, in a highly reproducible manner with the ferroelectric approach. The France–UK–US team also attempts to address a long-standing controversy about the relative importance of electron tunnelling and ionic effects in these devices.

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Figure 1: The ferroelectric tunnel junction as a non-volatile memory cell.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adrian Ionescu is in the Nanoelectronics Devices Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland,

    Adrian M. Ionescu

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  1. Adrian M. Ionescu
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Correspondence to Adrian M. Ionescu.

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Ionescu, A. Ferroelectric devices show potential. Nature Nanotech 7, 83–85 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.10

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