Ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials are promising candidates for future non-volatile memory technologies because of their distinctive polarization switching characteristics. This dissertation investigates the device physics, switching behavior, and design trade-offs of these materials for emerging memory applications. For ferroelectric devices, the work examines retention degradation and scaling challenges in FEFETs, and shows how depolarization effects and structural parameters such as ferroelectric and interfacial layer thickness influence memory stability, write voltage, and memory window. For antiferroelectric devices, a compact multidomain phase-field model is developed to capture their hysteresis and transient switching behavior, including the four distinct negative capacitance regions within a single switching cycle. The study is further extended to HZO based antiferroelectric memory, where built-in potential is shown to enable non-volatile operation. An array level analysis highlights the key latency and energy trade-offs . Overall, this dissertation provides insight into the behavior and design of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric devices and offers guidance for improving their performance, reliability, and scalability for future memory technologies.