Effects of EUV Irradiation on Poly-Si SONOS NVM Devices

Author

Tsui, Bing-Yue ; Yen, Chih-Chan ; Li, Po-Hsueh ; Lai, Jui-Yao

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

32

Issue

5

fYear

2011

fDate

5/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

614

Lastpage

616

Abstract

The effects of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV)-irradiation-induced damage on the characteristics of a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory device are investigated. After EUV irradiation, changes in the memory window and program/erase speed indicate the generation of positive charges and new traps. Retention performance degrades after high-dose irradiation, which indicates that the tunneling layer is damaged. Endurance performance degrades severely because the damage in the blocking oxide results in serious electron back injection after cycling operations. These defects cannot be recovered after 600°C annealing. It is recommended that in-process high-dose EUV irradiation on a SONOS stack after a front-end-of-line process should be avoided.

Keywords

annealing; electron traps; elemental semiconductors; random-access storage; silicon; silicon compounds; tunnelling; ultraviolet radiation effects; Si-SiO₂-Si₃N₄-SiO₂-Si; annealing; charge trap; electron back injection; endurance performance degradation; extreme-ultraviolet irradiation induced damage; front-end-of-line process; high-dose EUV Irradiation; nonvolatile memory; poly-Si SONOS NVM device; program-erase speed; retention performance degradation; silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon memory device; tunneling layer; Degradation; Logic gates; Performance evaluation; Radiation effects; SONOS devices; Tunneling; Ultraviolet sources; Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL); nonvolatile memory (NVM); radiation damage; silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon (SONOS) memory;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2011.2121052

Filename

5750026