SONOS memories with embedded silicon nanocrystals in nitride by in-situ deposition method

Author

HongWu, Yi ; Chiang, Tsung-Yu ; Liu, Sheng-Hsien ; Yang, Wen-Luh ; Chao, Tien-Sheng ; Chin, Fun-Tat

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Feng Chia Univ., Taichung

fYear

2008

fDate

2-4 June 2008

Firstpage

195

Lastpage

198

Abstract

In this work, we have successfully demonstrated SONOS memories with embedded Si-NCs in silicon nitride by in-situ deposition method. The self-assembly silicon nanocrystals were in-situ deposited within the Si₃N₄ storage layer by dissociation of dichlorosilane (SiH₂Cl₂) gas to a high density of 9 times 10¹¹ cm^-2. This new structure exhibits larger memory windows for up to 6 V, better program/erase characteristics, and excellent data retention properties as compared to control device. In addition, this novel process is simple, low cost, and compatible to the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes. This technology seems to be very promising for the advanced flash memory devices.

Keywords

CMOS memory circuits; nanostructured materials; self-assembly; silicon compounds; CMOS; SONOS memories; Si₃N₄; SiH₂Cl₂; complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor; embedded silicon nanocrystals; in-situ deposition method; self-assembly silicon nanocrystals; silicon nitride; CMOS technology; Chemical processes; Costs; Fabrication; Nanocrystals; Nonvolatile memory; SONOS devices; Silicon; Size control; Threshold voltage; In-situ deposition; SONOS memory; Silicon Nanocrystal;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Integrated Circuit Design and Technology and Tutorial, 2008. ICICDT 2008. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1810-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1811-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICICDT.2008.4567277

Filename

4567277