Work

Reconfigurable Logic-in-Memory Oxide Transistors Enabled by Transferable Ferroelectric HZO

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Oxide semiconductors such as indium oxide (In2O3) offer high-electron mobility and low-temperature processability, making them promising candidates for back-end-of-line (BEOL)-compatible logic-in-memory applications. However, direct deposition of high-κ ferroelectric dielectrics (Hf0.5Zr0.5O2; HZO) on oxide channels typically degrades interfacial quality, leading to threshold voltage shifts and unstable polarization due to depolarization fields and defect states. In this work, we leverage advanced membrane transfer techniques to demonstrate a transferable ferroelectric HZO layer for interface-layer-free integration with In2O3. This approach forms a van der Waals-like junction, evidenced by an ∼0.8 nm interfacial gap, which avoids the chemical incompatibilities of conventional gate stack processing while preserving the pristine stoichiometry of the In2O3 channel. The transferred HZO exhibits a dielectric constant of 26 and low leakage current (<10-7 A cm-2 at 1 MV cm-1) while maintaining robust ferroelectric switching. Dual-gate ferroelectric In2O3 transistors achieve a large memory window and stable endurance over 109 cycles. We further integrate these devices into reconfigurable inverter circuits that dynamically switch between NOR and NAND logic functions with tunable voltage transfer characteristics. The ferroelectric thin-film transfer process is fully compatible with silicon back-end-of-line thermal budgets and scalable to wafer-level integration, offering a viable route toward high-density, multifunctional logic-in-memory architectures.

Source: ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6c04397