Charge retention characteristics of SiGe quantum dot flash memories

Author

Dong-Won Kim ; Prins, F.E. ; Taehoon Kim ; Dim-Lee Kwong ; Banerjee, S.

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Res. Center, Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

24-26 June 2002

Firstpage

151

Lastpage

152

Abstract

For application to nonvolatile memory devices, a long retention time is most important. Recent efforts on alternate high-K gate dielectric materials replacing silicon dioxide in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology have demonstrated a higher /spl epsiv/ values, reduced leakage, improved resistance to boron diffusion, and better reliability characteristics. In this paper we present the charge retention characteristics of SiGe nanocrystals embedded in ZrO/sub 2/ using a TaN/ZrO/sub 2//Si MIS. The devices show improved retention characteristics and have a high potential for further scaling of EEPROM cells.

Keywords

CMOS memory circuits; dielectric thin films; flash memories; integrated circuit reliability; leakage currents; nanotechnology; semiconductor quantum dots; CMOS; EEPROM; MIS; Si-ZrO/sub 2/-SiGe; charge retention characteristics; high-K gate dielectric materials; leakage; nonvolatile memory devices; quantum dot flash memories; reliability; scaling; Boron; CMOS technology; Flash memory; Germanium silicon alloys; High K dielectric materials; Inorganic materials; Nonvolatile memory; Quantum dots; Silicon compounds; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Device Research Conference, 2002. 60th DRC. Conference Digest

Conference_Location

Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7317-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DRC.2002.1029568

Filename

1029568