Discovery could extend the life of electronic devices

Nobel laureate Herbert Kroemer once famously said: “The interface is the device.” The observations by Sydney researchers could thus spark a new debate over whether interfaces – which are physical boundaries separating different regions into materials – are a viable solution to the unreliability of next-generation devices.

“Our discovery has shown that interfaces can actually accelerate the ferroelectric degradation. Therefore, a better understanding of these processes is needed to achieve the best performance of devices,” said Dr. Chen said.

Ferroelectric materials are used in many devices, including memory, capacitors, drives and sensors. These devices are commonly used in both consumer and industrial instruments, such as computers, medical ultrasound equipment and underwater solar water.

Over time, ferroelectric materials are repeated to mechanical and electrical loads, leading to a gradual decrease in their functionality, which eventually leads to failure. This process is called ‘ferroelectric fatigue’.

It is a major cause of the failure of a range of electronic devices, and discarded electronics are a major contributor to e-waste. Globally, tens of millions of millions of tons of failed electronic devices are dumped every year.

The researchers of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering were able to observe electronic fatigue as it occurs with the help of advanced electron microscopy. This technique uses an advanced microscope to see ‘realtime’, down to the nanoscale and atomic level.

The researchers hope that this new observation, described in an article published in Nature communication, will help to better inform the future design of ferroelectric nano-devices.

“Our discovery is an important scientific breakthrough because it shows a clear picture of how the ferroelectric degradation process is present in the nanoscale,” said co-author Professor Xiaozhou Liao, also of the University of Sydney Nano Institute.

Dr. Qianwei Huang, lead researcher of the study, said: “Although it has long been known that ferroelectric fatigue can shorten the life of electronic devices, the way it occurs in the past is not yet well understood, due to ‘ a lack of suitable technology to detect it. “

Co-author, dr. Zibin Chen, said: “With this we hope that we will be able to better inform the engineering of devices with longer life.”