Title :
Metal nanocrystal/nitride heterogeneous-stack floating gate memory
Author :
Lee, Chungho ; Hou, Tuo-Hung ; Kan, Edwin C.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY
Abstract :
Nonvolatile memories with heterogeneous-stack floating gate of metal nanocrystals and silicon nitride (Si3N4) have been fabricated and characterized. The heterogeneous gate stacks showed superior characteristics in retention and low voltage write/erase over single metal nanocrystal memories and/or nitride memories (i.e., MONOS or SONOS). The metal nanocrystals in the stack made low voltage operation possible by the direct tunneling programming, while the nitride layer as an additional charge storage trap layer enabled longer retention time. By making the double stack of Si3N4-Au-Si3N4-Au, we could enhance the memory characteristics even further
Keywords :
field effect memory circuits; gold; low-power electronics; nanoelectronics; nanostructured materials; silicon compounds; Si3N4-Au-Si3N4-Au; charge storage trap layer; direct tunneling programming; metal nanocrystal memories; nitride heterogeneous-stack floating gate memory; nitride layer; nitride memories; nonvolatile memories; silicon nitride; Degradation; Gold; Low voltage; Nanocrystals; Nonvolatile memory; SONOS devices; Silicon; Temperature; Testing; Tunneling;
Conference_Titel :
Device Research Conference Digest, 2005. DRC '05. 63rd
Conference_Location :
Santa Barbara, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9040-7
DOI :
10.1109/DRC.2005.1553073
