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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 3eFERRO (Energy Efficient Embedded Non-volatile Memory Logic based on Ferroelectric Hf(Zr)O2)

Teaser

The Internet of things (IoT) technology is deployed in 5 main areas: Smart Environment for ageing well, Smart Farming, Wearable, Smart Cities, and Smart Mobility. Development and optimization of the technology has potentially important consequences in terms of economic...

Summary

The Internet of things (IoT) technology is deployed in 5 main areas: Smart Environment for ageing well, Smart Farming, Wearable, Smart Cities, and Smart Mobility. Development and optimization of the technology has potentially important consequences in terms of economic competitiveness, employment, energy conservation, living conditions and lifestyle.
However, the rapid growth of the IoT requires intelligent, fast and low power data handling and storage well beyond current current capacities.
Data transfer between the central processor unit and adjacent embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) is the most simple approach but more complex but efficient approaches are required to optimize handling and power consumption. This would allow replacing Flash memories in microcontrollers by better embedded elements in logic circuits for local storage and non-volatile circuits. New, more robust and faster eNVMs with low power consumption and higher endurance would enable the implementation of more flexible logic and memory architectures.

Work performed

In the first 9 months of the project the exchange protocols, materials growth and first advanced characterization experiments have been performed. Ferroelectric HfO2 and HfZrO2 can now be produced by a wide variety of techniques in four partner laboratories. In parallel, the test design for producing and characterizing an array of ferroelectric memory devices has been validated, allow production of the first demonstrator to be planned.

Final results

Ferroelectric memories (FeRAMs) have the best endurance among all NVMs with a very low energy per bit of information. The recent discovery of ferroelectricity in HfO2 has opened the way to high density integration of these memories in current semiconductor technology. 3εFERRO therefore aims to develop a competitive and versatile ferroelectric HfO2-based embedded memory devices. Secondly, the project will develop new electronic circuit designs to optimize speed and power consumption for mobile devices and IoT applications.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.3eferro.eu.