Charging effect of Si nanocrystals in gate oxide near gate on MOS capacitance

Charging/discharging of silicon nanocrystals embedded in an SiO2matrix inducing reduction/recovery in the total capacitance and tunneling current

“…The current is also found to drop dramatically to a level (a reduction of about six orders) similar to that of a virgin pure SiO 2 film, as shown in figure 2(b). As reported by Liu et al [9], the reduction of the overall capacitance was mainly due to the charging of nc-Si embedded in the SiO 2 matrix. It is observed that the reduction in the capacitance corresponds to the reduction in the current, as shown in figure 2.…”

Oxygen partial pressure dependence of memory effect of sputtered nc-Al/α-Al2O3 thin films

“…Nanocrystals embedded in a dielectric matrix thin films, such as nc-Ge/SiO 2 [1], nc-Si/SiO 2 [2,3] and nc-Al/AlN [4], have attracted growing attention as a promising candidate for charging nodes in a single-electron memory device (SEMD). Compared to continuous floating gate, the nanofloating gate memory shows an advantage of improved endurance due to preventing lateral charge movement.…”

Characterization of silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 matrix

“…The increases in the capacitance are due to the discharge of the previously trapped charges in the nc-Si, which were trapped during the first C-V measurement, as a result of the application of the voltage. As shown in [193], the capacitance increases with the number of uncharged nanocrystals. Thus the discharge leads to a larger capacitance.…”