Bilayer-Based Antiferroelectric HfZrO2 Tunneling Junction With High Tunneling Electroresistance and Multilevel Nonvolatile Memory

The bilayer-based Antiferroelectric Tunneling Junction (AFTJ) with ferroelectric (FE) HfZrO
₂
(HZO) and dielectric (DE) Al
₂
O
₃
demonstrates a current ratio of
$> 100\times $
, a TER (tunneling electroresistance) of
$> 50\times $
, multilevel states,
$> 10^{4}$
sec retention, and a cycling endurance as high as 10
⁸
. The concept of tunneling current through DE in an antiferroelectric (AFE) system enhances the capacity to modulate the current/TER ratio and makes the AFTJ feasible for low-power crossbar eNVM (embedded nonvolatile memory) applications.