This study compares the performance of two types of capacitive devices, indium tin oxide-aluminum oxide-zirconia aluminum oxide-silicon oxide-silicon (IAZAOS) and indium tin oxide-aluminum oxide-hafnium aluminum oxide-silicon oxide-silicon (IAHAOS), as silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) non-volatile memory (NVM) total dose of ultraviolet radiation (UV TD) sensors. Results show that IAZAOS with zirconia aluminum oxide as the charge-trapping layer outperforms IAHAOS with hafnium aluminum oxide for a UV TD sensor. After exposure to UV TD irradiation of 100 mW·s/cm2, the threshold voltage (VT) change of IAZAOS is almost 1.25 times that of IAHAOS. The study also found that annealing can significantly improve the response performance of IAZAOS UV TD sensors. Furthermore, IAZAOS devices with partially smaller nanocrystals in the charge-trapping layer greatly enhance the response of SONOS-type UV TD sensors. The study also compared the constant voltage stress-induced leakage current (CVSILC) and found that the CVSILC for annealed IAZAOS devices is 1000 times smaller than that of IAHAOS devices. Moreover, the IAZAOS-I2Z2 exhibits a superior performance regarding irradiation/refresh cycle endurance as compared to the IAHAOS-I2H1 device. These findings suggest that IAZAOS capacitive devices have superior performance and potential for use in SONOS-type UV TD sensors.

This research demonstrates that an indium tin oxide–silicon oxide–hafnium aluminum oxide‒silicon oxide–silicon device with enhanced UV transparency ITO gate (hereafter E-IOHAOS) can greatly increase the sensing response performance of a SONOS type ultraviolet radiation total dose (hereafter UV TD) sensor. Post annealing process is used to optimize UV optical transmission and electrical resistivity characterization in ITO film. Via nano-columns (NCols) crystalline transformation of ITO film, UV transparency of ITO film can be enhanced. UV radiation causes the threshold voltage VT of the E-IOHAOS device to increase, and the increase of the VT of E-IOHAOS device is also related to the UV TD. The experimental results show that under UV TD irradiation of 100 mW·s/cm2, ultraviolet light can change the threshold voltage VT of E-IOHAOS to 12.5 V. Moreover, the VT fading rate of ten-years retention on E-IOHAOS is below 10%. The VT change of E-IOHAOS is almost 1.25 times that of poly silicon–aluminum oxide–hafnium aluminum oxide–silicon oxide–silicon with poly silicon gate device (hereafter SAHAOS). The sensing response performance of an E-IOHAOS UV TD sensor is greatly improved by annealed ITO gate.