The past five years have witnessed some dramatic developments in the
general area of ferroelectric thin films materials and devices.
Ferroelectrics are not new materials by any stretch ofimagination.
Indeed, they have been known since the early partofthis century and
popular ferroelectric materials such as Barium Titanate have been in use
since the second world war. In the late sixties and seventies, a
considerable amountofresearch and development effort was made to create
a solid state nonvolatile memory using ferroelectrics in a vary simple
matrix-addressed scheme. These attempts failed primarily due to problems
associated with either the materials ordue to device architectures. The
early eighties saw the advent of new materials processing approaches,
such as sol-gel processing, that enabled researchers to fabricate
sub-micron thin films of ferroelectric materials on a silicon substrate.
These pioneering developments signaled the onsetofa revival in the
areaofferroelectric thin films, especially ferroelectric nonvolatile
memories. Research and development effort in ferroelectric materials and
devices has now hit a feverish pitch, Many university laboratories,
national laboratories and advanced R&D laboratories oflarge IC
manufacturers are deeply involved in the pursuit of ferroelectric device
technologies. Many companies worldwide are investing considerable
manpower and resources into ferroelectric technologies. Some have
already announced products ranging from embedded memories in micro-
controllers, low density stand-alone memories, microwave circuit
elements, andrf identification tags. There is now considerable optimism
that ferroelectric devices andproducts will occupy a significant
market-share in the new millennium.
