Integration of organic insulator and self-assembled gold nanoparticles on Si MOSFET for novel non-volatile memory cells

Abstract

We have fabricated a hybrid non-volatile gold nanoparticle floating-gate memory metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistor (MISFET) device combining silicon technology and organic thin film deposition. The nanoparticles are deposited by chemical processes at room temperature over a 5 nm thermal silicon dioxide layer. A multi-layer organic insulator (cadmium arachidate) deposited by the Langmuir–Blodgett technique at room temperature covers the nanoparticle layer and separates it from an Al gate electrode. Charge injection/rejection into the nanoparticles takes place by applying different voltage pulses (less than ±6 V) to the gate electrode, resulting in significant threshold-voltage shift. Charge retention measurements reveal that the device has non-volatile behavior.