SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY AND MANUFACTURE THEREOF

PURPOSE:To embody a semiconductor memory that maintains a reliability over a long period of time and does not require the initialization of a memory cell in which a ferroelectric thin film is used as a capacitive insulating film. CONSTITUTION:A register-capacity-lower electrode 107 which constitutes a capacitor of a memory cell is made of platinum, and a plate electrode which will be an upper electrode 109 is made of palladium. A PZT thin film having a thickness of 50nm is interposed between these electrodes as a register-capacity- lnsulating film 108. The lower electrode 107 is connected to one diffusion layer of a switching transistor, and the upper electrode 109 is driven as a plate. A plate potential is set to an intermediate level between a power supply potential and a ground potential, more preferably to a half of the sum of the power supply potential and the ground potential. The combination of materials of the upper and lower electrodes is set in such a way that a difference in work function is produced. Also, a ferroelectric thin film is very thinly formed, and it is used while a coercive electric field thereof is shifted.