Cycling-Induced Peak-Like Interface State Generation in Si-Nanocrystal Memory Devices

The peaklike behavior of interface trap generation was observed in silicon-nanocrystal (Si-NC) memory during Fowler-Nordheim program/erase cycling. In addition to the two peaks at 0.3 and 0.85 eV from Pb₀ centers, two extra peaks (0.45 and 0.7 eV) were also observed and suggested from Pb₁ centers. In contrast, only Pb₀ centers were observed in reference devices without Si-NCs. The result will be helpful to understand the effect of Si-NCs on the interface reliability.