The effect of temperature in rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process on the physical and electrical properties of bismuth ferrite ceramic thin films on HfLaO/p-Si substrates has been investigated. In metal-ferroelectric-insulator-silicon (MFIS) capacitors, the high-k HfLaO dielectric layer was prepared as the insulator layer. On HfLaO/Si substrates the bismuth ferrite thin film was fabricated via sputtering process with a BiFeO3 (BFO) target at room temperature followed by RTA. The RTA temperature ranged from 500 to 700 degrees C. It is found that the root mean square roughness of ceramic films increases for high-temperature process. The maximum ferroelectric memory window is 1.6 V obtained from a sweep voltage of +/- 4 Vat the lowest RTA temperature of 500 degrees C. This good ferroelectric memory performance can be attributed to the low leakage current as a result of smooth surface of nanocrystalline ferroelectric BFO and Bi2Fe4O9 thin films. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.