Oxides grown on textured single-crystal silicon-dependence on process and application of EEPROMs

Author

Fong, Yupin ; Wu, Albert Tsung-Tse ; Hu, Chenming

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

37

Issue

3

fYear

1990

fDate

3/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

583

Lastpage

590

Abstract

The electrical properties of oxides grown on textured single-crystal silicon (TSC oxides) are dependent on the process used to roughen or texture the single-crystal silicon surface. The effects of different processing steps on the I-V, C-V, charge trapping, interface trap generation, and breakdown characteristics of TSC oxides are examined. By choosing a particular set of processing steps, a TSC oxide can exhibit enhanced conduction and very good charge trapping and breakdown characteristics, which make it an interesting dielectric for EEPROM applications. Floating-gate EEPROMs fabricated using this TSC oxide demonstrate the feasibility of this new technology. Programming, cycling, and retention characteristics of this EEPROM are presented. In particular, the retention data of the TSC EEPROM show an improvement over those of EEPROMs using oxides grown on untextured single-crystal silicon

Keywords

EPROM; dielectric thin films; electric breakdown of solids; elemental semiconductors; etching; integrated memory circuits; oxidation; silicon; surface texture; C-V characteristics; I-V characteristics; Si-SiO₂; TSC oxides; breakdown characteristics; capacitors; charge trapping; electrical properties; etching; floating gate EEPROM; interface trap generation; programming; retention characteristics; textured single crystal Si; Capacitance-voltage characteristics; EPROM; Electric breakdown; Fabrication; Nonvolatile memory; Rough surfaces; Silicon; Surface texture; Tunneling; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.47761

Filename

47761