INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CAPACITORS UTILIZING LOW CURIE POINT FERROELECTRICS

摘要

The invention is applicable to integrated circuit having ferroelectric layers that are switched between two states during the operation of the integrated circuit. In the present invention (10), a capacitor (19) has a ferroelectric layer (22) constructed from a material having a Curie point below 400 DEG C. In the typical integrated circuit fabrication process, the final step in the process before packaging involves annealing the circuit at a temperature above the Curie point of the ferroelectric layer used in an integrated circuit according to the present invention. Hence, any accumulated asymmetric charge distribution in the ferroelectric layer resulting from the processing of the integrated circuit after the deposition of the ferroelectric layer is eliminated. If the normal fabrication process does not involve a final annealing step at a temperature above the Curie point of the ferroelectric layer, a final annealing step in which the ferroelectric is annealed at a temperature above its Curie point is used.