• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.37-40
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• 1999

For the first time, charge trapping nonvolatile semiconductor memories with the deoxidized oxynitride gate dielectric is proposed and demonstrated. Gate dielectric wit thickness of less than 1 nm have been grown by postnitridation of pregrown thermal silicon oxides in NO ambient and then reoxidation. The nitrogen distribution and chemical state due to NO anneal/reoxidation were investigated by M-SIMS, TOF-SIMS, AES depth profiles. When the NO anneal oxynitride film was reoxidized on the nitride film, the nitrogen at initial oxide interface not only moved toward initial oxide interface, but also diffused through the newly formed tunnel oxide by exchange for oxygen. The results of reoxidized oxynitride(ONO) film analysis exhibits that it is made up of SiO$_2$(blocking oxide)/N-rich SiON interface/Si-rich SiON(nitrogen diffused tunnel oxide)/Si substrate. In addition, the SiON and the S1$_2$NO Phase is distributed mainly near the tunnel oxide, and SiN phase is distributed mainly at tunnel oxide/Si substrate interface.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.445-449
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• 2020

Non-volatile memory is approaching its fundamental limits with the Si₃N₄ storage layer, necessitating the use of alternative materials to achieve a higher programming/erasing speed, larger storage window, and better data retention at lower operating voltage. This limitation has restricted the development of the charge-trap memory, but can be addressed by using high-k dielectrics. The paper reviews the doping of nitrogen, titanium, and yttrium on high-k dielectrics as a storage layer by comparing MONOS devices with different storage layers. The results show that nitrogen doping increases the storage window of the Gd₂O₃ storage layer and improves its charge retention. Titanium doping can increase the charge capture rate of HfO₂ storage layer. Yttrium doping increases the storage window of the BaTiO₃ storage layer and improves its fatigue characteristics. Parameters such as the dielectric constant, leakage current, and speed of the memory device can be controlled by maintaining a suitable amount of external impurities in the device.

• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.180-180
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• 2010

Thin film transistors (TFTs) based on oxide semiconductors have emerged as a promising technology, particularly for active-matrix TFT-based backplanes. Currently, an amorphous oxide semiconductor, such as InGaZnO, has been adopted as the channel layer due to its higher electron mobility. However, accurate and repeatable control of this complex material in mass production is not easy. Therefore, simpler polycrystalline materials, such as ZnO and $SnO_2$, remain possible candidates as the channel layer. Inparticular, ZnO-based TFTs have attracted considerable attention, because of their superior properties that include wide bandgap (3.37eV), transparency, and high field effect mobility when compared with conventional amorphous silicon and polycrystalline silicon TFTs. There are some technical challenges to overcome to achieve manufacturability of ZnO-based TFTs. One of the problems, the stability of ZnO-based TFTs, is as yet unsolved since ZnO-based TFTs usually contain defects in the ZnO channel layer and deep level defects in the channel/dielectric interface that cause problems in device operation. The quality of the interface between the channel and dielectric plays a crucial role in transistor performance, and several insulators have been reported that reduce the number of defects in the channel and the interfacial charge trap defects. Additionally, ZnO TFTs using a high quality interface fabricated by a two step atomic layer deposition (ALD) process showed improvement in device performance In this study, we report the fabrication of high performance ZnO TFTs with a $Si_3N_4$ gate insulator treated using plasma. The interface treatment using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) $O_2$ plasma improves the interface quality by lowering the interface trap density. This process can be easily adapted for industrial applications because the device structure and fabrication process in this paper are compatible with those of a-Si TFTs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1994.05a
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• pp.116-119
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• 1994

The characteristics of the Si-SiO$_2$ interface and the degradation in the short channel(L${\times}$W=1.7$\mu\textrm{m}$${\times}$15$\mu\textrm{m}$) SONOSFET nonvolatile memory devices, fabricated on the basis of the existing n-well CMOS processing technology for 1 Mbit DRAM with the 1.2$\mu\textrm{m}$ m design rule, were investigated using the charge pumping method. The SONOSFET memories have the tripple insulated-gate consisting of 30${\AA}$ tunneling oxide 205${\AA}$ nitride and 65${\AA}$ blocking oxide, The acceleration method which square voltage pulses of t$\_$p/=10msec, Vw=+19V and V$\_$E/=-22V continue to be alternatly applied to gale, was used to investigate the degradation of SONOSFET memories with the write/erase cycle. The degradation characteristics were ascertained by observing the change in the energy and spatial distributions of the interface trap density.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2008

Recently, Metal/Alumina/Silicon-Nitride/Silicon-Oxide/Silicon (MANOS) structures are one of the most attractive candidates to realize vertical scaling of high-density NAND flash memory [1]. However, as ANO layers are miniaturized, negative and positive bias temperature instability (NBTI/PBTI), such as the flat band voltage shift, ${\Delta}V_{FB}$, the interfacial trap density increase, ${\Delta}D_{it}$, the gate leakage current, ${\Delta}I_G$. and the retention characteristics, in MONOS capacitors, becomes an important issue in terms of reliability. It is well known that tunnel oxide degradation is a result of the oxide and interfacial traps generation during FN (Fowler-Nordheim) stress [2]. Because the bias temperature stress causes an increase of both interfacial-traps and fixed oxide charge could be a factor, witch can degrade device reliability during the program and erase operation. However, few studies on NBTI/PBTI have been conducted on improving the reliability of MONOS devices. In this work, we investigate the effect of post-annealing gas on bias temperature instability (BTI), such as the flat band voltage shift, ${\Delta}V_{FB}$, the interfacial trap density shift, ${\Delta}I_G$ retention characteristics, and the gate leakage current characteristics of MANOS capacitors. MANOS samples annealed at $950^{\circ}C$ for 30 s by a rapid thermal process were treated via additional annealing in a furnace, using annealing gases $N_2$ and $N_2-H_2$ (2 % hydrogen and 98 % nitrogen mixture gases) at $450^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. MANOS samples annealed in $N_2-H_2$ ambient had the lowest flat band voltage shift, ${\Delta}V_{FB}$ = 1.09/0.63 V at the program/erase state, and the good retention characteristics, 123/84 mV/decade at the program/erase state more than the sample annealed at $N_2$ ambient.