A Novel Trapping-Nitride-Storage Non-Volatile Memory Cell Using a Gated-Diode Structure With an Ultra-Thin Dielectric Dopant Diffusion Barrier

Author

Tsai, Wen-Jer ; Ou, Tien-Fan ; Kao, Hsuan-ling ; Lai, Erh-Kun ; Huang, Jyun-Siang ; Chong, Lit-Ho ; Liao, Yi-Ying ; Hong, Shih-Ping ; Wu, Ming-Tsung ; Tsai, Shih-Chang ; Leng, Chia-Hao ; Hsu, Fang-Hao ; Wang, Szu-Yu ; Cheng, Chun-Ming ; Luoh, Tuung ; Hung

Author_Institution

Macronix Int. Co. Ltd., Hsinchu

Volume

55

Issue

8

fYear

2008

Firstpage

2202

Lastpage

2211

Abstract

A novel trapping-nitride-storage nonvolatile memory cell by using a gated-diode structure is proposed. An ultrathin nitride layer is introduced between the n-type and p-type regions of the diode. This layer acts as a dopant diffusion barrier that well defines the junction location. Meanwhile, it is thin enough that charge carriers can flow through it via direct tunneling at low field as being sensed. Good program/erase characteristics and acceptable reliability are presented. Finally, using a low-bandgap material to enhance the sensing current is suggested along with the preferred device structure.

Keywords

dielectric thin films; diffusion barriers; elemental semiconductors; random-access storage; semiconductor diodes; silicon; tunnelling; Si; gated-diode structure; low field direct tunneling; preferred device structure; trapping-nitride-storage nonvolatile memory cell; ultrathin dielectric dopant diffusion barrier; Charge carrier processes; Charge carriers; Dielectrics; Diodes; Heterojunctions; Nonvolatile memory; Photonic band gap; Reliability engineering; Scalability; Tunneling; Band-edge offset; band-to-band tunneling (BTBT); bandgap engineering; direct tunneling (DT); dopant diffusion barrier; gated diode; heterojunction; nonvolatile memory (NVM); trapped-charge storage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2008.926576

Filename

4578890