• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.54-57
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• 2002

In this study, a new programming method, to minimize the generation of Si-SiO$_2$ interface traps of scaled SONOS flash memory as a function of number of program/erase cycles has been proposed. In the proposed programming method, power supply voltage is applied to the gate, forward biased program voltage is applied to the source and the drain, while the substrate is left open, so that the program is achieved by Modified Fowler-Nordheim (MFN) tunneling of electron through the tunnel oxide over source and drain region. For the channel erase, erase voltage is applied to the gate, power supply voltage is applied to the substrate, and the source and drain are open. A single power supply operation of 3 V and a high endurance of 1${\times}$10$\^$6/ prograss/erase cycles can be realized by the proposed programming method. The asymmetric mode in which the program voltage is higher than the erase voltage, is more efficient than symmetric mode in order to minimize the degradation characteristics of scaled SONOS devices because electrical stress applied to the Si-SiO$_2$ interface is reduced by short programming time.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.831-837
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• 2002

Scaled SONOS transistors have been fabricated by 0.35$\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS standard logic process. The thickness of stacked ONO(blocking oxide, memory nitride, tunnel oxide) gate insulators measured by TEM are 2.5 nm, 4.0 nm and 2.4 nm, respectively. The SONOS memories have shown low programming voltages of ${\pm}$8.5 V and long-term retention of 10-year Even after 2 ${\times}$ 10$\^$5/ program/erase cycles, the leakage current of unselected transistor in the erased state was low enough that there was no error in read operation and we could distinguish the programmed state from the erased states precisely The tight distribution of the threshold voltages in the programmed and the erased states could remove complex verifying process caused by over-erase in floating gate flash memory, which is one of the main advantages of the charge-trap type devices. A single power supply operation of 3 V and a high endurance of 1${\times}$10$\^$6/ cycles can be realized by the programming method for a flash-erased type EEPROM.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1017-1021
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• 2007

To implement tera bit level non-volatile memories of low power and fast operation, proving statistical reproductivity and satisfying reliabilities at the nano-scale are a key challenge. We fabricate the charge trapping nano scaled SONOS unit memories and 64 bit flash arrays and evaluate reliability and performance of them. In case of the dielectric stack thickness of 4.5 /9.3 /6.5 nm with the channel width and length of 34 nm and 31nm respectively, the device has about 3.5 V threshold voltage shift with write voltage of $10\;{\mu}s$, 15 V and erase voltage of 10 ms, -15 V. And retention and endurance characteristics are above 10 years and $10^5$ cycle, respectively. The device with LDD(Lightly Doped Drain) process shows reduction of short channel effect and GIDL(Gate Induced Drain Leakage) current. Moreover we investigate three different types of flash memory arrays.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.914-920
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• 2000

When the charge-trap type SONOS(polysilicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor) cells are used to flash memory, the tunneling program/erase condition to minimize the generation of interface traps was investigated. SONOSFET NVSM(Nonvolatile Semiconductor Memory) cells were fabricated using 0.35 ㎛ standard memory cell embedded logic process including the ONO cell process, based on retrograde twin-well, single-poly, single metal CMOS(Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) process. The thickness of ONO triple-dielectric for the memory cell is tunnel oxide of 24 $\AA$, nitride of 74 $\AA$, blocking oxide of 25 $\AA$, respectively. The program mode(V$\_$g/=7, 8, 9 V, V$\_$s/=V$\_$d/=-3 V, V$\_$b/=floating) and the erase mode(V$\_$g/=-4, -5, -6 V, V$\_$s/=V$\_$d/=floating, V$\_$b/=3 V) by MFN(Modified Fowler-Nordheim) tunneling were used. The proposed programming condition for the flash memory of SONOSFET NVSM cells showed less degradation(ΔV$\_$th/, S, G$\_$m/) characteristics than channel MFN tunneling operation. Also, the program inhibit conditins of unselected cell for separated source lines NOR-type flash memory application were investigated. we demonstrated that the phenomenon of the program disturb did not occur at source/drain voltage of 1 V∼12 V and gate voltage of -8 V∼4 V.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 1994

The multi-dielectric layer SiOz/Si3N4/SiO2(ONO) is used to scale down the memory device. In this paper, the change of composition in ONO layer due to the process condition and the conduction mechanism are observed. The composition of the oxide film grown through the oxidation of nitride film is analyzed using auger electron spectroscopy(AES). AES results show that oxygen concentration increases at the interface between oxide and nitride layers as the thickness -of the top oxide layer increases. Results of I-V measurement show that the insulating properties improve as the thickness of the top oxide layer increases. But when the thickness of the nitride layer decreases below 63.angs, insulating peoperties of film 28.angs. of top oxide and film 35.angs. turn over showing that insulating property of film 28.angs. of top oxide is better than that of film 35.angs. of top oxide. This phenomenon of turn over is thought as the result of generation of surface state due to oxygen flow into nitride during oxidation process. As the thickness of the top oxide and nitride increases, the electrical breakdown field increases, but when the thickness of top oxide reaches 35.angs, the same phenomenon of turn over occurs. Optimum film thickness for scaled multi-layer dielectric of memory device SONOS is estimated to be 63.angs. of nitride layer and 28.angs. of top oxide layer. In this case, maximum electrical breakdown field and leakage current are 18.5[MV/cm] and $8{\times}{10^-12}$[A], respectively.