Modeling the Coupled Charge Trapping Dynamics in FeFETs for Reliability Characterizations

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In this article, a compact physics framework is established to characterize the reliability-related defects in ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs). The two-state nonradiative multiphonon (NMP) theory is solved with coupling to a Monte Carlo nucleation-limited switching (MCNLS) ferroelectric (FE) module. Charge trapping and de-trapping are hence calculated in the consistency with the electrostatic potentials of FeFETs. The measured read-after-write data of n-type FeFETs is well reproduced, indicating shallow traps with low relaxation energy (S) and high trap energy level (E ₜ). At the same time, experimentally observed FeFET memory windows (MWs) featuring different trends of low-V ₜₕ(LVT)/high-V ₜₕ(HVT) states shifting are explained with deep traps of different configurations, i.e., with higher S and lowerE ₜ. This framework not only facilitates reasonable explanations of FeFET reliability mechanisms for further optimizations but also provides a defect-aware approach for FeFET-based neuromorphic and compute-in-memory (CiM) applications.