Title :
Effects of EUV Irradiation on Poly-Si SONOS NVM Devices
Author :
Tsui, Bing-Yue ; Yen, Chih-Chan ; Li, Po-Hsueh ; Lai, Jui-Yao
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan
fDate :
5/1/2011 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The effects of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV)-irradiation-induced damage on the characteristics of a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory device are investigated. After EUV irradiation, changes in the memory window and program/erase speed indicate the generation of positive charges and new traps. Retention performance degrades after high-dose irradiation, which indicates that the tunneling layer is damaged. Endurance performance degrades severely because the damage in the blocking oxide results in serious electron back injection after cycling operations. These defects cannot be recovered after 600°C annealing. It is recommended that in-process high-dose EUV irradiation on a SONOS stack after a front-end-of-line process should be avoided.
Keywords :
annealing; electron traps; elemental semiconductors; random-access storage; silicon; silicon compounds; tunnelling; ultraviolet radiation effects; Si-SiO2-Si3N4-SiO2-Si; annealing; charge trap; electron back injection; endurance performance degradation; extreme-ultraviolet irradiation induced damage; front-end-of-line process; high-dose EUV Irradiation; nonvolatile memory; poly-Si SONOS NVM device; program-erase speed; retention performance degradation; silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon memory device; tunneling layer; Degradation; Logic gates; Performance evaluation; Radiation effects; SONOS devices; Tunneling; Ultraviolet sources; Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL); nonvolatile memory (NVM); radiation damage; silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon (SONOS) memory;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LED.2011.2121052
