Extraction of physical parameters on silicon nanocrystals devoted to non-volatile memories

In Flash-like memory technologies, the replacement of the continuous polysilicon gate by silicon nanocrystals enables improving reliability thanks to discrete charge trapping within nanocrystals. In this context, this paper deals with the extraction of some physical parameters on silicon nanocrystals dedicated to non-volatile memories. An optimized industrial “full silane” process was used to grow nanometric crystals on top of a tunnel oxide. Various “in-line” and “off-line” imaging techniques such as Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy were advantageously deployed to extract some physical parameters such as average size, density, or coverage of silicon nanocrystals.