A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor includes a first group of metal contacts disposed on a first region of an isolation layer spaced apart from each other in a first direction, a second group of metal contacts disposed on a second region of the isolation layer spaced apart from each other in the first direction, a dielectric layer disposed between the first group of metal contacts and the second group of metal contacts, a first metal electrode disposed to contact the top surfaces of the first group of metal contacts, and a second metal electrode disposed to contact the top surfaces of the second group of metal contacts.

A capacitor includes: a bottom electrode; a top electrode over the bottom electrode; a dielectric film between the bottom electrode and the top electrode; and a doped Al.sub.2O.sub.3 film between the top electrode and the dielectric film, wherein the doped Al.sub.2O.sub.3 film includes a first dopant, and an oxide including the same element as the first dopant has a higher dielectric constant than a dielectric constant of Al.sub.2O.sub.3.

The invention provides a non-volatile storage element and non-volatile storage device employing a ferroelectric material with low power consumption, excellent high reliability, and especially write/erase endurance, which can be mixed with advanced CMOS logic. The non-volatile storage element has at least a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, and a ferroelectric layer composed of a metal oxide between both conductive layers, with a buffer layer having oxygen ion conductivity situated between the ferroelectric layer and the first conductive layer and/or second conductive layer. An interface layer composed of a single-layer film or a multilayer film may be also provided between the first conductive layer and the ferroelectric layer, the interface layer as a whole having higher dielectric constant than silicon oxide, and when the buffer layer is present between the first conductive layer and the ferroelectric layer, the interface layer is situated between the first conductive layer and the buffer layer. The non-volatile storage device comprises at least a memory cell array comprising low-power-consumption ferroelectric memory elements formed in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional configuration, and a control circuit. The ferroelectric layer is scalable to 10 nm or smaller and is fabricated at a low temperature of ≤400° C., and is subjected to low temperature thermal annealing treatment at ≤400° C. after the buffer layer has been formed, to provide high reliability.

A semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of semiconductor devices. The semiconductor devices each include a ferroelectric layer, a conductive metal oxide layer, and a semiconductor layer, between two electrodes. The conductive metal oxide layer may be between the ferroelectric layer and the semiconductor layer. The ferroelectric layer, the conductive metal oxide layer, and the semiconductor layer may all include a metal oxide. The conductive metal oxide layer may include one or more materials selected from the group consisting of an indium oxide, a zinc oxide, a tin oxide, and any combination thereof.

A layer structure including a dielectric layer, a method of manufacturing the layer structure, and an electronic device including the layer structure are disclosed. The layer structure including a lower layer, a dielectric layer, and an upper layer sequentially stacked. The dielectric layer includes sequentially stacked first, second, and third layers, wherein one of the first layer or the third layer is a ferroelectric, the other one is an antiferroelectric, and the second layer is an oxide layer. In one example, the dielectric layer may further include a fourth layer on the third layer.

The disclosed technology generally relates to ferroelectric materials and semiconductor devices, and more particularly to semiconductor memory devices incorporating doped polar materials. In one aspect, a semiconductor device comprises a capacitor which in turn comprises a polar layer comprising a base polar material doped with a dopant. The base polar material includes one or more metal elements and one or both of oxygen or nitrogen. The dopant comprises a metal element that is different from the one or more metal elements and is present at a concentration such that a ferroelectric switching voltage of the capacitor is different from that of the capacitor having the base polar material without being doped with the dopant by more than about 100 mV. The capacitor stack additionally comprises first and second crystalline conductive oxide electrodes on opposing sides of the polar layer. The capacitor stack further comprises first and second barrier metal layers on respective ones of the first and second crystalline conductive oxide electrodes on opposing sides of the polar layer.

To compensate switching of a dielectric component of a non-linear polar material based capacitor, an explicit dielectric capacitor is added to a memory bit-cell and controlled by a signal opposite to the signal driven on a plate-line.

A capacitor may include a lower electrode, a dielectric layer structure on the lower electrode, and an upper electrode on the dielectric layer structure. The dielectric layer structure may include a plurality of dielectric layers and at least one insert layer structure between ones of the plurality of dielectric layers. The insert layer structure may include a plurality of zirconium oxide layers and at least one insert layer. The insert layer may be between ones of the plurality of zirconium oxide layers. The capacitor may have a high capacitance and low leakage currents.

A stacked structure includes a ferroelectric layer, and a tunnel barrier layer joined to the ferroelectric layer. The main component of the ferroelectric layer is aluminum nitride, and the main component of the tunnel barrier layer is magnesium oxide.

The present disclosure provides a capacitor, a semiconductor device, and a method for preparing a capacitor. The semiconductor device includes a plurality of memory cells, at least one of the memory cells including a capacitor. The capacitor includes a first electrode comprising titanium nitride and disposed on a substrate, a dielectric film disposed on the first electrode, a multilayer film disposed on the dielectric film, and a second electrode comprising titanium nitride and disposed on the multilayer film. The method for preparing the capacitor includes forming the first electrode comprising titanium nitride on the substrate, forming a dielectric film on the first electrode, forming the multilayer film on the dielectric film, and forming the second electrode comprising titanium nitride on the multilayer film.