The structural and electrical properties of PZT (lead zirconate titante) thin films grown on Pt (platinum) and Ru/Ru $O_2$(ruthenium/ruthenium oxide) electrodes were investigated. Thin films of PZT were deposited on a variety of electrodes using the rf-magnetron sputtering process. PZT films exhibited polycrystalline structure with strong PZT (100) plane and weak (211) plane for an optimizied Pt electrode and (100), (101), (111), (200), (210), (211) planes for Ru/Ru $O_2$. Switching polarization versus fatigue characteristic of Pt/Ti electrodes showed 20% degradation up to 1 $ imes$ 10$_{9}$ cycles. No significant fatigue was observed in the films on Ru/Ru $O_2$ electrodes up to Ix109 test cycles. The results show that the new Ru/Ru $O_2$ bottom electrodes are expected to reduce the degradation of