CEA-Leti Demonstrates 22nm FeRAM with 3D HZO Capacitors at VLSI 2026

CEA-Leti announced the scaling of ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) to the 22nm node using a 3D capacitor architecture. The development was presented at the VLSI Conference.

The approach employs vertically integrated ferroelectric capacitors based on hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) thin films. This resulted in memory cells 2.5 times smaller than standard SRAM at the 22nm node, achieving a density comparable to SRAM at the 10nm node. The FeRAM is non-volatile, retaining data without power.

Simon Martin, lead author of the paper "Engineering 3D HZO Ferroelectric Capacitors to Scale Down 22nm Embedded FeRAM," stated: "This 3D ferroelectric capacitor-based FeRAM technology enables high-speed, high-density, low-voltage operation of non-volatile memory arrays. This breakthrough is a strong candidate for high-performance embedded applications, including ultra-low-power Edge AI, high-performance computing, aerospace and defense systems, and IoT platforms."

The technology addresses prior density limitations of FeRAM, which relied on planar capacitor structures where the capacitor determined the cell footprint due to low current during operations. CEA-Leti implemented vertical 3D architectures built upwards. Two back-end-of-line (BEOL) integration schemes were demonstrated at 22nm using advanced patterning and deposition techniques.

Array functionality was confirmed ...