Ultimate scalability of TaN metal floating gate with incorporation of high-K blocking dielectrics for Flash memory applications

We have investigated ultrathin TaN metal floating gate (FG) with Hf based high-K interpoly dielectrics (IPD) for NAND Flash applications. In an attempt to investigate the memory behavior as the FG thickness is reduced, scalability of TaN FG down to 1 nm thickness has been explored. We have demonstrated excellent memory performance with program-erase (P-E) window as large as 16V. Our results indicate that high-K based IPD in conjunction with ultra-thin TaN metal FG can enable further scaling of NAND Flash memory beyond conventional oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) based IPD technology.