Simulation of Ferroelectric Thin Films

The hysteresis properties of ferroelectric thin films open an elegant and promising way to build nonvolatile memory cells. Our basic goal is to set up a tool which is able to reproduce the macroscopic behavior of the devices by calculating current, voltage and charge at the contacts correctly. Our tool, MINIMOS-NT, provides a rigorous approach to describe the static hysteresis properties of ferroelectric materials including the accurate modeling of subcycles. Expansion of this model into two dimensions allows the simulation of arbitrary device structures. The generic implementation of our device simulator can handle both isotropic and anisotropic materials respectively. Additionally, we introduced three transient terms with physical meaning into the basic material equation making the simulation in a wide range of frequencies possible.