Cross-Layer Reliability Modeling of Dual-Port FeFET: Device-Algorithm Interaction

The Ferroelectric Field-Effect Transistor (FeFET) is an emerging Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technology enabling novel data-centric architectures that go far beyond von Neumann principles. Nevertheless, FeFET devices exhibit significant variations that can severely restrict their applicability. Temperature further exacerbates variation effects because it degrades ferroelectric parameters. Hence, it is indispensable to investigate and model design-time variations, run-time variations, and stochastic variations due to spatial fluctuation of ferroelectric domains under different temperatures. Dual-port FeFET has been recently proposed and demonstrated as a novel structure that offers for the first time disturb-free read operation along with > 10 × larger memory window (MW) compared to conventional FeFETs. However, all the before-mentioned variations are amplified in such a new structure. This work analyses the impact of temperature variation for dual-port FeFETs for the first time in a cross-layer manner starting from the device level to the circuit/system levels, and compared to conventional FeFET. Through our cross-layer framework, we demonstrate the severe impact of variation on FeFET reliability despite the significant increase in the MW that dual-port FeFET offers. Even Hyperdimensional Computing is affected, despite its remarkable robustness against errors. All in all, our work reveals that a larger MW at the device level does not necessarily translate to benefits at the application level. Hence, investigating and modeling variability effects in a cross-layer manner is indispensable.