Silicon nanowire nonvolatile-memory with varying HfO2 charge trapping layer thickness

Author

Zhu, X. ; Li, Qiliang ; Ioannou, D.E. ; Gu, D. ; Baumgart, H. ; Bonevich, J.E. ; Suehle, J.S. ; Richter, C.A.

Author_Institution

ECE Dept., George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

9-11 Dec. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

The authors have fabricated silicon nanowire (SiNW) based Al₂O₃/HfO₂/SiO₂ nonvolatile-memory (NVM) cells with varying HfO₂ trapping layer thickness have been fabricated by using self-aligning approach. The cells exhibit excellent characteristics such as fast programming/erasing (P/E) speeds, good endurance and excellent retention. The P/E speed is not sensitive to the HfO₂ layer thickness. The magnitude of the achievable memory window on the other hand is larger for the cells with thicker HfO₂ layers. These results are all in good agreement with the TCAD simulation analysis.

Keywords

aluminium compounds; electron traps; hafnium compounds; hole traps; nanowires; random-access storage; silicon compounds; Al₂O₃-HfO₂-SiO₂; TCAD simulation; charge trap; fast programming/erasing speed; self-aligning process; silicon nanowire nonvolatile memory; Aluminum oxide; Consumer electronics; Degradation; Electron traps; Hafnium oxide; Lithography; Nanowires; Nonvolatile memory; Silicon; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Device Research Symposium, 2009. ISDRS '09. International

Conference_Location

College Park, MD

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6030-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-6031-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISDRS.2009.5378132

Filename

5378132