Poly-Si Nanowire Nonvolatile Memory With Nanocrystal Indium–Gallium–Zinc–Oxide Charge-Trapping Layer

Abstract

This letter introduces a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film nonvolatile memory (NVM) with a nanocrystal (NC) indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) charge-trapping layer. Experimental results indicate that this NVM exhibits high and symmetric program/erase speeds through the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling mechanism. The memory window loss of the NVM with NC IGZO charge-trapping layer is 25% after 104 s at 85°C due to deep quantum well, as well as high-density and deep trap sites in NC IGZO charge-trapping layer. Accordingly, a poly-Si thin-film transistor with NC IGZO charge-trapping layer is promising for NVM applications.