Polycrystalline-Si TFT TANOS Flash Memory Cell With Si Nanocrystals for High Program/Erase Speed and Good Retention

Author

Hung, Min-Feng ; Wu, Yung-Chun ; Tien, Shun-Cheng ; Chen, Jiang-Hung

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng. & Syst. Sci., Nat. Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

33

Issue

5

fYear

2012

fDate

5/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

649

Lastpage

651

Abstract

This letter presents a polycrystalline-silicon channel TaN-Al₂O₃-Si₃N₄-SiO₂-silicon (TANOS) nonvolatile memory (NVM) with a charge-trapping layer of embedded Si nanocrystals (NCs) (Si-NCs). The fabrication process of the Si-NCs is simple and highly compatible with the current Flash process. NCs enhance the program/erase speed of the NVM devices because the interface between Si-NCs and nitride contains numerous trapping sites for storing electrons. Moreover, the Si-NCs locally concentrate the electric field and reduce the effective nitride thickness. The NC TANOS exhibits a charge loss of only 5% for ten years of data storage.

Keywords

alumina; electron traps; flash memories; nanostructured materials; random-access storage; silicon compounds; tantalum compounds; thin film transistors; NVM devices; TANOS nonvolatile memory; TFT TANOS flash memory cell; TaN-Al₂O₃-Si₃N₄-Si; charge loss; charge-trapping layer; data storage; electric field; embedded silicon nanocrystals; fabrication process; flash process; good retention; high program/erase speed; nitride thickness; polycrystalline-silicon; trapping sites; Aluminum oxide; Flash memory; Logic gates; Nanocrystals; Nonvolatile memory; Silicon; Thin film transistors; $hbox{TaN}{-}hbox{Al}_{2}hbox{O}_{3}{-}hbox{Si}_{3}hbox{N}_{4}{-} hbox{SiO}_{2}{-}hbox{silicon}$ (TANOS); Flash memory; Si nanocrystals (NCs) (Si-NCs); thin-film transistor (TFT);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2012.2188826

Filename

6178767