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

Volume

1

fYear

2005

fDate

22-22 June 2005

Firstpage

97

Lastpage

98

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;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Device Research Conference Digest, 2005. DRC '05. 63rd

Conference_Location

Santa Barbara, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9040-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DRC.2005.1553073

Filename

1553073