• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.80-83
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• 2003

In this paper, the programming characteristics of the multi-bit devices based on SONOS structure are investigated. Our devices have been fabricated by $0.35\;{\mu}m$ complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process with LOCOS isolation. In order to achieve the two-bits per cell operation, charges must be locally trapped in the nitride layer above the channel near the junction. Channel hot electron (CHE) injection for programming can operate in multi-bit using localized trap in nitride film. CHE injection in our devices is achieved with the single power supply of 5 V. To demonstrate CHE injection, substrate current (Isub) and one-shot programming curve were investigated. The multi-bit operation which stores two-bit per cell is investigated with a reverse read scheme. Also, hot hole injection for fast erasing is used. Due to the ultra-thin gate dielectrics, our results show many advantages which are simpler process, better scalability and lower programming voltage compared to any other two-bit storage flash memory. This fabricated structure and programming characteristics are shown to be the most promising for the multi-bit flash memory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.97-98
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• 2009

Tunneling barrier engineered charge trap flash (TBE-CTF) memory capacitor were fabricated using the tunneling barrier engineering technique. Variable oxide thickness (VARIOT) barrier and CRESTED barrier consisting of thin $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$ dielectrics layers were used as engineered tunneling barrier. The charge trapping characteristic with different metal gates are also investigated. A larger memory window was achieved from the TBE-CTF memory with high workfunction metal gate.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.360-369
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• 2012

The causes of showing different subthreshold slopes (SS) in programmed and erased states for two different charge trap flash (CTF) memory devices, SONOS type flash memory with gate-all-around (GAA) structure and TANOS type NAND flash memory with planar structure were investigated. To analyze the difference in SSs, TCAD simulation and low-frequency noise (LFN) measurement were fulfilled. The device simulation was performed to compare SSs considering the gate electric field effect to the channel and to check the localized trapped charge distribution effect in nitride layer while the comparison of noise power spectrum was carried out to inspect the generation of interface traps ($N_{IT}$). When each cell in the measured two memory devices is erased, the normalized LFN power is increased by one order of magnitude, which is attributed to the generation of $N_{IT}$ originated by the movement of hydrogen species ($h^*$) from the interface. As a result, the SS is degraded for the GAA SONOS memory device when erased where the $N_{IT}$ generation is a prominent factor. However, the TANOS memory cell is relatively immune to the SS degradation effect induced by the generated $N_{IT}$.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.566-571
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• 2014

Channel-stacked 3D NAND flash memory is very promising candidate for the next-generation NAND flash memory. However, there is an inherent issue on cell size variation between stacked channels due to the declined etch slope. In this paper, the effect of the cell variation on the incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) characteristics is studied with 3D TCAD simulation. The ISPP slope degradation of elliptical channel is investigated. To solve that problem, a new programming method is proposed, and we can alleviate the $V_T$ variation among cells and reduce the total programming time.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.409-413
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• 2012

In this study, a substrate-bias assisted 2-step pulse programming method is proposed for realizing 4-bit/1-cell operation of the SONOS memory. The programming voltage and time are considerably reduced by this programming method than a gate-bias assisted 2-step pulse programming method and CHEI method. It is confirmed that the difference of 4-states in the threshold voltage is maintained to more than 0.5 V at least for 10-year for the multi-level characteristics.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.148-152
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• 2004

The direct lateral profile and retention characteristics of locally trapped-charges in the nitride layer of the two-bit polysilicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory are investigated by using the charge pumping method. After charges injection at the drain junction region, the lateral diffusion of trapped charges as a function of retention time is directly shown by the results of the local threshold voltage and the trapped-charges quantities.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2017

In this paper, we have studied the characteristics of NAND Flash memory in SONOS Poly-Si Thin Film Transistor (Poly-Si TFT) device. Source/drain junctions(S/D) of cells were not implanted and selective transistors were located in the end of cells. We found the optimum conditions of process by means of the estimation for the doping concentration of channel and source/drain of selective transistor. As the doping concentration was increased, the channel current was increased and the characteristic of erase was improved. It was believed that the improvement of erase characteristic was probably due to the higher channel potential induced by GIDL current at the abrupt junction. In the condition of process optimum, program windows of threshold voltages were about 2.5V after writing and erasing. In addition, it was obtained that the swing value of poly Si TFT and the reliability by bake were enhanced by increasing process temperature of tunnel oxide.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.219-225
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• 2013

Program and erase characteristics of the elliptic gate all around (e-GAA) SONOS cell have been studied as the variation of eccentricity of the channel. An analytic program and erase model for the elliptic GAA SONOS cell is proposed and evaluated. The model shows that the ISPP (incremental-step-pulse programming) property is changed non-linearly as the eccentricity of the e-GAA SONOS cell is increased. It is differently from the well known linear relationship for that of 2D SONOS and even 3D circular SONOS cell with program bias. We can find that the simulation results of ISPP characteristics are in accord with the experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.631-636
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• 2012

Conventional SONOS (poly-silicon/oxide/nitride/oxide/silicon) type memory is associated with a retention issue due to the continuous demand for scaled-down devices. In this study, $Al_2O_3/Y_2O_3/SiO_2$ (AYO) multilayer structures using a high-k $Y_2O_3$ film as a charge-trapping layer were fabricated for nonvolatile memory applications. This work focused on improving the retention properties using a $Y_2O_3$ layer with different tunnel oxide thickness ranging from 3 nm to 5 nm created by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The electrical properties and reliabilities of each specimen were evaluated. The results showed that the $Y_2O_3$ with 4 nm $SiO_2$ tunnel oxide layer had the largest memory window of 1.29 V. In addition, all specimens exhibited stable endurance characteristics (program/erasecycles up to $10^4$) due to the superior charge-trapping characteristics of $Y_2O_3$. We expect that these high-k $Y_2O_3$ films can be candidates to replace $Si_3N_4$ films as the charge-trapping layer in SONOS-type flash memory devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.751-754
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• 2000

When charge-trap SONOS cells are used flash memory, the tunneling program/erase condition to minimize the generation of interface traps was investigated. SONOSFET NVSM cells were fabricated using 0.35$\mu\textrm{m}$ standard memory cell embedded logic process including the ONO cell process. based on retrograde twin-well, single-poly, single metal CMOS process. The thickness of ONO triple-dielectric for memory cell is tunnel oxide of 24${\AA}$, nitride of 74 ${\AA}$, blocking oxide of 25 ${\AA}$, respectively. The program mode(Vg: 7,8,9 V, Vs/Vd: -3 V, Vb: floating) and the erase mode(Vg: -4,-5,-6 V, Vs/Vd: floating, Vb: 3V) by modified Fowler-Nordheim(MFN) tunneling were used. The proposed programming condition for the flash memory of SONOSFET NVSM cells showed less degradation($\Delta$Vth, S, Gm) characteristics than channel MFN tunneling operation. Also the program inhibit conditions of unselected cell for separated source lines NOR-tyupe flash memory application were investigated. we demonstrated that the program disturb phenomenon did not occur at source/drain voltage of 1 V∼4 V and gate voltage of 0 V∼4.