Hafnium aluminum oxide as charge storage and blocking-oxide layers in SONOS-type nonvolatile memory for high-speed operation

Author

Tan, Yan Ny ; Chim, Wai Kin ; Choi, Wee Kiong ; Joo, Moon Sig ; Cho, Byung Jin

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore

Volume

53

Issue

4

fYear

2006

fDate

4/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

654

Lastpage

662

Abstract

The charge storage and program/erase mechanisms in polysilicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory structures with charge-storage layers of different materials are investigated in this paper. In particular, the use of a HfAlO charge-storage layer in a SONOS-type memory structure is proposed. Compared to other high-κ charge-storage layers, HfAlO has the advantage of high-speed program/erase of HfO₂ as well as the good charge-retention time of Al₂O₃, which makes HfAlO a promising candidate for the charge-storage layer in a SONOS-type memory. The use of HfAlO with different HfO₂ and Al₂O₃ compositions as a blocking-oxide layer in SONOS-type structures is also investigated.

Keywords

aluminium compounds; flash memories; hafnium compounds; random-access storage; HfAlO; SONOS memory structures; blocking oxide layers; charge storage layers; flash memories; hafnium aluminum oxide; high dielectric constant; nonvolatile memory; polysilicon oxide nitride oxide silicon; program-erase mechanisms; Aluminum oxide; Hafnium oxide; Material storage; Moon; Nonvolatile memory; Photonic band gap; SONOS devices; Silicon; Student members; Voltage; Flash memories; hafnium aluminum oxide; hafnium oxide; high dielectric constant (high-; polysilicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon (SONOS);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2006.870273

Filename

1610892