Graphene and CNT based flash memory: Impacts of scaling control and tunnel oxide thickness

For flash memory devices the thicknesses of the control and tunneling oxides in the floating gate transistor (FGT) are crtical parameters. We recently proposed a floating gate transstor using multilayer graphene nanoribbon (MLGNR) and carbon nanotube (CNT). In this paper, we have analyzed the impacts of scaling the thickness of the control and tunneling oxides in the proposed MLGNR/CNT based FGT. According to ITRS, semiconductor industry has already adopted 6nm thick tunneling oxide for 18-nm and 22-nm technology nodes. By 2020, technology is expected to move to 10nm node, and 5nm tunnel oxide is predicted for 8nm-14nm nodes. For less than 20nm technology nodes, ultra-thin tunnel oxide would lead to higher tunneling current density that will affect the reliability of the flash memory cell. Based on our analysis we have provided some recommendations about the scaling of oxide thickness in the proposed MLGNR/CNT floating gate transistor.