Title :
First principle study of the stability of H atoms in SiN layers on MONOS-type memories during program/erase operations
Author :
Yamaguchi, Keita ; Otake, Akira ; Kamiya, Katsumasa ; Shiraishi, Kenji ; Shigeta, Yasuteru
Author_Institution :
Grad. Sch. of Pure & Appl. Sci., Univ. of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Abstract :
Recently, hydrogen has been recognized as an important heteroatom in Metal-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Semiconductor (MONOS) -type memories for its quality improvement. However, if stability of H atoms in SiN layers changes by applying high voltage, memory characteristics of MONOS-type memories change during program/erase (P/E) operations, resulting in memory degradation. Therefore, in this paper, we have investigated the stability of H atoms in SiN charge trapping layers of MONOS-type memories during P/E operations by using first principles calculations. Our calculations show that H atoms in Si or N vacancies in SiN layers become unstable and migrate when high voltage is applied, leading to memory degradation with changes of memory characteristics. This result clearly indicates that suppression of H atoms in SiN layers is necessary for realization of high quality MONOS-type memories.
Keywords :
MOS memory circuits; ab initio calculations; hydrogen; nitrogen; silicon; silicon compounds; vacancies (crystal); H atom stability; MONOS-type memory; N vacancies; SiN; charge trapping layers; erase operation; first principle method; memory degradation; metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor-type memory; program operation; Atomic layer deposition; Crystals; Degradation; Photonic band gap; Silicon; Silicon compounds; Stability analysis; MONOS; SiN; first principles calculations; non-volatile memory;
Conference_Titel :
Simulation of Semiconductor Processes and Devices (SISPAD), 2011 International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Osaka
Print_ISBN :
978-1-61284-419-0
DOI :
10.1109/SISPAD.2011.6034917
