Impact of Moisture From Passivation on Endurance and Retention of NAND Flash Memory

Author

Zih-Song Wang ; Te-Yuan Yin ; Tzung-Hua Ying ; Ya-Jui Lee ; Chieh-Yi Lu ; Arakawa, H. ; Chrong Jung Lin

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Lab., Nat. Tsing-Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

60

Issue

1

fYear

2013

fDate

Jan. 2013

Firstpage

254

Lastpage

259

Abstract

This study investigates how the passivation process impacts floating gate type NAND flash reliability. The hydrogen post-metallization anneal step sequence in the process flow and film deposition of passivation layer significantly influence endurance and retention performance. Experimental results indicate that the degradation mechanism is the water diffusion model. The optimized process flow of the passivation layer is proposed as well.

Keywords

NAND circuits; coating techniques; diffusion; flash memories; integrated circuit metallisation; integrated circuit reliability; passivation; NAND flash memory; degradation mechanism; endurance performance; film deposition; floating gate type NAND flash reliability; hydrogen post-metallization anneal step sequence; moisture impact; optimized process flow; passivation layer; passivation process; retention performance; water diffusion model; Ash; Degradation; Hydrogen; Moisture; Passivation; Reliability; Stress; Moisture model; NAND flash; passivation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2012.2228864

Filename

6375804