Improved Memory Characteristics by NH₃Post Annealing for ZrO₂Based Charge Trapping Nonvolatile Memory

Abstract

Charge trapping nonvolatile memory capacitors with ZrO 2 as charge trapping layer were fabricated, and the effects of post annealing atmosphere (NH 3 and N 2 ) on their memory storage characteristics were investigated. It was found that the memory windows were improved, after annealing treatment. The memory capacitor after NH 3 annealing treatment exhibited the best electrical characteristics, with a 6.8 V memory window, a lower charge loss ~22.3% up to ten years, even at 150℃, and excellent endurance (1.5% memory window degradation). The results are attributed to deep level bulk charge traps, induced by using NH 3 annealing.

Effect of Annealing Atmosphere on the La2O3Nanocrystallite Based Charge Trap Memory

“…In addition, the binding energies of the La-silicate peaks of the S2 and S3 samples are 153.7 and 153.3 eV, respectively. The lower binding energy of the S3 sample may be due to the presence of nitrogen in the film [22][23][24][25]. Figure 3(b) shows the N 1s XPS spectra of the S1, S2 and S3 samples, respectively: the N 1s peak of the S3 sample is at 397.4 eV, but those of the S1 and S2 samples cannot be observed.…”

Effect of Post Deposition Annealing on ALD-ZrO2/SiON Gate Stacks for Advanced CMOS Technology

“…Furthermore, the tetragonal ZrO 2 phase is noticed for N 2 as well as NH 3 annealed ZrO 2 films which corresponds to (111), (002), ( 202) and (113) planes at 29.31 0 , 34.63 0 , 44.72 0 and 56.12 0 respectively. ZrO 2 annealing in NH 3 is quite appreciable as the peaks are quite broader relative to the N 2 annealed ZrO 2 , and can efficiently replace the oxygen atom of ZrO 2 to form a thermally stable phase of ZrON [21]. of significant amount of nitrogen incorporation into the ZrO 2 thin film and at the interface of SiON/ZrO 2 during NH 3 annealing.…”

“…Therefore, a number of high-k materials such as cerium oxide CeO 2 [9], gadolinium oxide Gd 2 O 3 [10], neodymium oxide Nd 2 O 3 [11], aluminum oxide Al 2 O 3 [12], lanthanum aluminum oxide LaAlO 3 [13], tantalum pentoxide Ta 2 O 5 [14], titanium dioxide TiO 2 [15], zirconium dioxide ZrO 2 [16] and hafnium silicate HfSi x O y [17] have been analyzed. Among them, ZrO 2 was found to be the most attractive candidates as it possesses high dielectric constant (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), large band gap (7.8 eV), high breakdown field (7-15 MV/cm) and is thermodynamically stable with silicon [18]. Direct deposition of silicon on high-k dielectrics results in a very poor interface having large number of defects.…”

Dependence of Electrons Loss Behavior on the Nitride Thickness and Temperature for Charge Trap Flash Memory Applications

“…These advantages include lower programming voltage, superior programming/erasing speeds, and a simple fabrication process compatible with standard complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor technology [1][2][3]. Recently, CTF memory devices have gained increasing interest in the three dimensional (3D) integration for next generation nonvolatile memory technology [4,5].…”