Title :
Effects of two-step high temperature deuterium anneals on SONOS nonvolatile memory devices
Author :
Bu, Jiankang ; White, Marvin H.
Author_Institution :
Microelectron. Res. Lab., Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, USA
Abstract :
The deterioration of the Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface is associated with the degradation of long-term retention in polysilicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) nonvolatile semiconductor memory (NVSM) devices. Two-step high temperature deuterium anneals, applied in SONGS device fabrication for the first time, improves the endurance characteristics and retention reliability over traditional hydrogen anneals. Electrical characterization shows deuterium-annealed SONOS devices have nearly one order of magnitude longer retention time than hydrogen-annealed devices after 10/sup 7/ erase/write cycles at 85/spl deg/C to provide an extrapolated 0.5 V detection window at ten years.
Keywords :
EPROM; MOSFET; annealing; elemental semiconductors; interface states; semiconductor device reliability; semiconductor storage; semiconductor-insulator boundaries; silicon; silicon compounds; 0.5 V; 85 C; SONOS nonvolatile memory devices; Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface; Si-SiO/sub 2/-SiN; endurance characteristics; nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; retention reliability; two-step high temperature D anneals; Annealing; Degradation; Deuterium; Fabrication; Hydrogen; Nonvolatile memory; SONOS devices; Semiconductor memory; Silicon; Temperature;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
