Sub-nA Low-Current HZO Ferroelectric Tunnel Junction for High-Performance and Accurate Deep Learning Acceleration

This paper presents a unique opportunity of HZO ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) for in-memory computing. The device operates at an extremely low sub-nA current while simultaneously achieving 50-ns fast switching, > 10 ⁷ cycling endurance, > 10-yr retention, minimal variability, and analog state modulation. We analyze an FTJ-based deep binary neural network. It achieves better accuracy and remarkable 702, 101, and 7×10 ⁴ times improvements in power, area, and energy-area product efficiency compared with those using NVMs with a typical μA cell current designed for fast memory access.