LaAlO 3 as tunnel dielectric for low-voltage and low-power p-channel flash memory free of drain disturb

Abstract

In this paper, high- k LaAlO 3 is proposed as tunnel dielectric for p-channel flash memory device application. The program/erase (P/E) injection current characteristic of p-channel flash memory cells with LaAlO 3 tunnel dielectric is investigated compared to the cells with SiO 2 tunnel dielectric by two-dimensional (2-D) device simulation, which shows that the bit line bias can be lowered from −5 V to −3 V during both P/E operations of flash memory cells with LaAlO 3 tunnel dielectric, meanwhile retains the fast P/E speed and high injection efficiency. Our work also shows that drain disturb, one of the main issues for p-channel flash memory, is alleviated dramatically due to the lower P/E voltage.