Operation of nanocrystalline-silicon-based few-electron memory devices in the light of electron storage, ejection, and lifetime characteristics

Abstract

A metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor memory device using nanocrystalline Si (nc-Si) dots as a floating gate over a short and narrow channel has been fabricated. Its operation at 77 K presents experimental evidence of storing and ejection of electrons associated with the nc-Si dot in the active area of the device. Though the lifetime of a single electron is apparently longer than the case when it is associated with another electron in the same nc-Si dot, a distribution in lifetime has been generally observed for the stored electrons in the nc-Si dots with the present memory devices.