MNOS memory technology with oxynitride thin films

Author

Kapoor, Vik J. ; Turi, R.A. ; Xu, Dan ; Bailey, Robert S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Cincinnati Univ., OH, USA

Volume

17

Issue

3

fYear

1994

fDate

9/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

367

Lastpage

372

Abstract

Memory properties of a metal-oxynitride-oxide-silicon (MNOS) device were investigated as a function of amount of oxygen and hydrogen impurities in the oxynitride films. The retention and endurance device characteristics improved by 60% and 10⁷ to 10⁸ cycles, respectively, as 13% oxygen was introduced in the oxynitride film. The interface state density decreased from 5.1 to 3.65×10 ¹¹ cm^-2 eV^-1, with an increase of approximately 21% oxygen in the oxynitride film, and further decreased to 2.1×10¹¹ cm² eV6^-1 after hydrogen annealing. The results indicate that the nonvolatile memory properties of MNOS devices can be altered and considerably improved by incorporating oxygen in the oxynitride film and selecting appropriate processing and annealing conditions

Keywords

annealing; dielectric thin films; impurities; interface electron states; metal-insulator-semiconductor structures; semiconductor storage; H impurities; H₂ annealing; MNOS memory technology; O impurities; SiON; endurance characteristics; interface state density; memory properties; nonvolatile memory properties; oxynitride thin films; retention characteristics; Annealing; Hydrogen; Impurities; Interface states; Nonvolatile memory; Semiconductor films; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Thin film devices; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology, Part A, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9886

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/95.311745

Filename

311745