Improvement of characteristics with a sub-5 nm ge-doped silicon nitride layer in charge trap flash memory cells

Dong Hua Li, Wandong Kim, Won Bo Shim, Se Hwan Park, Yoon Kim, Gil Sung Lee, Doo Hyun Kim, Jung Hoon Lee, Jang Gn Yun, Seongjae Cho, Il Han Park, Jong Ho Lee, Hyungcheol Shin, Byung Gook Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The silicon nitride layer can be used to produce the charge trapping/detrapping characteristic in a non-volatile charge trap flash (CTF) memory device. However, it has been suggested that sub-5 nm silicon nitride layer has too little trapping/detrapping properties to embody the non-volatile memory characteristics. As the demand for smaller CTF memory cell size increases rapidly, thickness reduction of the silicon nitride layer is an inevitable technical issue. In this paper, we introduce a Ge-doping method as a new solution, and discuss how it overcomes the silicon nitride layer scaling limit by comparing the characteristics of as-grown and Ge-doped silicon nitride CTF memory cells. The sub-5 nm Ge-doped silicon nitride CTF memory cells show larger memory window, faster program speed and better data retention characteristics compared with as-grown silicon nitride CTF memory cells. These results indicate that sub-5 nm silicon nitride CTF memory cells can have sufficient trapping/detrapping properties to exhibit non-volatile memory characteristics when we use Ge-doped silicon nitride as a charge storage layer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)577-580
Number of pages4
JournalNanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters
Volume8
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2016 American Scientific Publishers.

Keywords

  • Charge Trap Flash (CTF) Memory Cells
  • Data Retention Characteristics
  • Memory Window
  • Program Speed
  • Sub-5 nm Ge-Doped Silicon Nitride Layer

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