Abstract
Gold-nanoparticle (Au-NP) non-volatile memories (NVMs) with low-damage CF4 plasma treatment on the blocking oxide (BO) layer have been investigated to present the gate injection of the holes. These holes, injected from the Al gate with the positive gate bias, were explained by the bandgap engineering of the gradually-fluorinated BO layer and the effective work function modulation of the Al gate. The Si–F complex in the BO layer was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), while the depth of fluorine incorporation was verified using a secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS). In addition, the valence band modification of the fluorinated BO layer was examined by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) to support the bandgap engineering. The reactive power of the CF4 plasma treatment on the BO layer was modified to increase the electric field of the BO layer and raise the effective work function of the Al gate, leading to the hole-injection from the gate. The injected holes are trapped at the interface between the gold-nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and the tunneling oxide (TO) layer, resulting in superior data retention properties such as an extremely low charge loss of 5.7% at 104 s and a nearly negligible increase in charge loss at 85 °C of the CF4-plasma-treated Au-NP NVMs, which can be applied in highly reliable consumer electronics.
Highlights
Over the past few years, the demand for portable electronic devices has increased rapidly due to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT); a high-density unit is necessary in the development of floating gate (FG), non-volatile memories (NVMs) [1,2]
After the Au-NPs had formed, a 20-nm-thick SiO2 layer was deposited via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) as the blocking oxide (BO) layer, where the samples were kept in a SiH4 and N2O ambient at a radio frequency (RF) power of 50 W with gas flow rates of 5 and 200 sccm, Nanomaterials 2017, 7, 385 respectively
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Summary
Over the past few years, the demand for portable electronic devices has increased rapidly due to the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT); a high-density unit is necessary in the development of floating gate (FG), non-volatile memories (NVMs) [1,2]. As the devices scale, the charges stored in the FG are lost through the thin tunneling oxide (TO) layer, leading to severe reliability issues [3] To overcome these issues, discrete-charge storage concepts have been introduced in this generation [4,5]. There are lots of metal NPs, such as Ag, Au, Pt, W, Co, Ni, NiSi2, Ni1−xFex, Hf, TiN, and Al metal NPs, being used for the non-volatile memory (NVM) applications [3] This approach is to engineer the depth of the potential well (deff) at the storage nodes, achieving the asymmetrical barrier between the substrate and the storage nodes for the easy programming and good data-retention properties. All NVMs with metal NPs presented the storage of electrons, which were injected from the substrate
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