Tutorial sessions

9:00 - 10:30 am

Tutorial 1: Introduction to ferroelectric materials and phase transitions in ferroelectrics

By Dr Alexander Bratkovsky1 and Prof. J. F. Scott2
1Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, USA
2Centre for Ferroics, Earth Sciences Department, Cambridge University, UK

Dr Bratkovsky will give the lecture with the presentation prepared collaboratively with Prof Scott. The lecture describes ferroelectric (FE) transitions and materials, with an emphasis on those of interest for memory applications. Simple models allow to appreciate an important difference between the infinite and finite (practical) systems. The depolarizing field strongly affects the behavior of the latter, resulting in domains or more complex polarization patterns in ferroelectric films and particles. We discuss a problem of critical sizes for ferroelectricity itself and for memory. The misfit strains strongly affect the critical behavior and switching properties of the ferroelectric films and islands. Ferroelectric nanoislands attract increasing interest, with transitions into domain, vortex, and more complex patterns. We also touch upon a problem of multiferroic materials that attract increasing attention lately.

Dr Alexander Bratkovsky is a principal scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, USA. Before joining Hewlett-Packard in 1996, he worked as a research fellow at Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and before that at Kurchatov Institute for Atomic Energy (Moscow), where he got his PhD degree. Dr Bratkovsky is a Fellow of American Physical Society (APS), Vice-chair of Forum for Industrial and Applied Physics of APS. He has wide expertise in condensed matter theory and performed extensive research into theory of thin ferroelectric and ferroelastic films, nanoferroelectrics, loss of stability and domain structures, critical size for ferroelectricity and ferroelectric memory, unusual ferroelectric ordering and switching in nanoferroelectrics.

Prof. Scott was educated at Harvard and Ohio State Universities and began his study of phase transitions at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1966.  For many years a professor at the University of Colorado, he has been Professor of Ferroics at Cambridge University since 1999.  He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and won Humboldt (1977) and Monkasho (2001) Prizes for his work on ferroelectrics. He has published more than 300 journal articles (with >10,000 citations) in this field and authored or coauthored five books, of which "Ferroelectric Memories" (Springer, Heidelberg, 2000) has been translated into Japanese (Springer-Japan, Tokyo, 2003) and Chinese (Tsinghua Press, Beijing, 2004).  In 1986 he founded, together with C. Araujo and L. McMillan, Symetrix Corp., and served as its first chairman of the board of directors from 1986-1990; Symetrix and its licensee Matsushita won the "Product of the Year Award" in 1994 from the Japan Electronics Industry for its BST-on-GaAs MMIC devices, which were the first "integrated ferroelectrics".

10:45 am - 12:15 pm

Tutorial 2: Switching Kinetics in Ferroelectrics at the Nanoscale

By Prof. Alexei Gruverman
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA

Rapid development of nanoscience and nanotechnology of ferroelectrics in the past decade was significantly accelerated by the availability of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, specifically Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) which opened new possibilities for characterization and control of static and dynamic properties of ferroelectrics at the nanoscale. To understand the scaling behavior in ferroelectrics, mechanism of polarization reversal and switching in nanoscale volumes need to be addressed. In this tutorial lecture, recent advances in PFM with respect to nanoscale switching behavior, domain kinetics and scaling effect in ferroelectric thin films and micrometer scale capacitors will be presented. Tailoring the properties of ferroelectrics via nanoscale domain control and characterization of low-dimensional ferroelectric structures will be described as well.

Prof. Alexei Gruverman is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interests are in the field of scanning probe microscopy of functional materials, nanoscience and nanotechnology, nanoscale phenomena in ferroelectrics, and non-volatile information storage technologies. He has been involved in SPM research for the past 15 years. While working in Japan he has pioneered the SPM-based approach for non-destructive high-resolution imaging of ferroelectric domains in thin films and characterization of ferroelectric memory devices. After joining North Carolina State University in 2000 he continued working on advanced application of various SPM techniques (most notably Piezoresponse Force Microscopy) to nanoscale studies of electronic and biomaterials. In 2007, he joined faculty at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has published more than 70 papers in refereed journals, over 10 book chapters and review articles, presented over 60 communications in scientific meetings and has edited two books.

1:30 - 3:00 pm

Tutorial 3: FRAM Technology and its Opportunity

By Dr. Hitoshi Tanaka
Fujitsu Ltd., Japan

In 1999, FUJITSU started the mass production on FRAMs. Since then, FRAM market has been spreading in the fields of the counter data logging, and fast data evacuation on the power shutdown. These applications are closely related to the advantage of FRAM properties. In this lecture, I will discuss on FRAM technology development and its potential market. RFID is one of them with fast writing and low power consumption. Security application is also emerging. All FRAM MCU whose memories are solely FRAMs is exhibiting huge potential market in consumer appliance.

Since joining FUJITSU, Dr. Hitoshi Tanaka has been engaged in the research work of compound semiconductor devices, high-k materials for advanced CMOS devices, and emerging memories. Since 2005, he is responsible for FRAM technology development and its business operation. He is currently the director of FRAM Design Department, FUJITSU Ltd.

 

3:15 - 4:45 pm

Tutorial 4:  Piezoelectric and Ferroelectric Thin Films for
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems

By Prof. Paul Muralt
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL at Lausanne, Switzerland

This tutorial will give an overview on materials, processes, operation principles, and applications of piezoelectric thin films in MEMS. The materials AlN and PZT, together with their most common deposition methods (sol-gel, sputtering) are introduced. An actual status is given on properties, discussing figures of merit for the various operation modes, such as beam deflection, flexural transducer, strain sensor, bulk wave resonator, etc. In this context, the merits of the two main materials are discussed. The current art of thin film integration is presented together with silicon micromachining techniques, including deep reactive ion etching. A number of applications are described in the area of actuators, sensors, and transducers: linear actuators for optical scanners, transducers for ink-jet printing heads, active damping, micro motors and robots, ultrasonic sensors, and further more.

Paul Muralt is professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL at Lausanne, Switzerland, and group leader for thin film and MEMS activities at the Ceramics Laboratory. He has a diploma in experimental physics, and PhD degree in solid state physics from ETH in Zurich. His current research interests are in thin film growth and integration issues of polar materials and solid ion conductive materials, property-microstructure relationships, and applications of these materials in semiconductor and micro-electro-mechanical devices. He authored or coauthored 120 regular articles, of which 80 deal with MEMS devices, piezoelectric and pyroelectric thin film processing, and related integration issues. He gives lectures on ceramic materials, thin film and patterning technology. In 2005, he received an outstanding achievement award from the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics. He is senior member of the IEEE society.