Performance comparison of planar and cylindrical ferroelectric tunnel junctions

Abstract

Abstract A comprehensive comparison of the electrical characteristics between the planar (P-FTJ) and cylindrical ferroelectric tunnel junction (C-FTJ) is conducted based on physical modeling and simulation. The FTJ architecture consists of metal-ferroelectric–dielectric-metal stacks. Two configurations of C-FTJ are considered depending on whether the position of the ferroelectric (FE) layer is close or away from the inner electrode. The differences between the P-FTJ and C-FTJs in the distributions of the electric field and FE polarization are analyzed. The resultant tunneling electroresistance (TER) is explored as a function of the inner radius, FE thickness, dielectric thickness, and remnant polarization. These simulation results offer physical insights into achieving highly integrated three-dimensional storage structures by improving the TER ratio.