TY - JOUR
T1 - Negative-/Positive-Bias-Instability Analysis of the Memory Characteristics Improved by Hydrogen Postannealing in MANOS Capacitors
AU - Kim, Hee Dong
AU - An, Ho Myoung
AU - Seo, Yujeong
AU - Zhang, Yongjie
AU - Geun Kim, Tae
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received June 11, 2009; revised September 16, 2009 and October 18, 2009. Date of publication November 20, 2009; date of current version June 4, 2010. This work was supported in part by the Korean Government under the National Research Foundation (NRF) Grant K20901000002-09E0100-00210 and in part by the Basic Science Research Program through the NRF of Korea under a grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Quantum Photonic Science Research Center).
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - We report the effect of hydrogen annealing on the gate-leakage-current and switching characteristics of metal-alumina-nitride-oxide-silicon (MANOS) capacitors by analyzing their negative-/positive-bias instability (NBI/PBI). One sample, namely, A, is annealed with rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and the other sample, namely, B, is first annealed with RTA and then further annealed in a furnace, using a N2–H2 (98% nitrogen and 2% hydrogen) gas mixture. In the NBI/PBI experiments, the flatband voltage shift ΔVFB is observed to be smaller, i.e., the gate-leakage-current density is reduced for sample B at gate voltages less than ±3 V, a domain where trap-assisted tunneling is dominant. However, ΔVFB increases rapidly for the same sample at gate voltages larger than ±6 V, a domain where the modified Fowler-Nordheim tunneling (MFNT) is dominant, which indicates faster program-and-erase characteristics. These results show that additional hydrogen annealing can improve both device reliability and switching characteristics of the MANOS-type memory by reducing interface traps between the silicon substrate and silicon oxide layers, as well as turn-on voltages for MFNT.
AB - We report the effect of hydrogen annealing on the gate-leakage-current and switching characteristics of metal-alumina-nitride-oxide-silicon (MANOS) capacitors by analyzing their negative-/positive-bias instability (NBI/PBI). One sample, namely, A, is annealed with rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and the other sample, namely, B, is first annealed with RTA and then further annealed in a furnace, using a N2–H2 (98% nitrogen and 2% hydrogen) gas mixture. In the NBI/PBI experiments, the flatband voltage shift ΔVFB is observed to be smaller, i.e., the gate-leakage-current density is reduced for sample B at gate voltages less than ±3 V, a domain where trap-assisted tunneling is dominant. However, ΔVFB increases rapidly for the same sample at gate voltages larger than ±6 V, a domain where the modified Fowler-Nordheim tunneling (MFNT) is dominant, which indicates faster program-and-erase characteristics. These results show that additional hydrogen annealing can improve both device reliability and switching characteristics of the MANOS-type memory by reducing interface traps between the silicon substrate and silicon oxide layers, as well as turn-on voltages for MFNT.
KW - Flash memory
KW - metal-alumina-nitride-oxide-silicon (MANOS)
KW - negative-bias (NB) temperature instabilities (NBTIs)
KW - passivation effect
KW - positive-bias (PB) temperature instabilities (PBTIs)
KW - postannealing
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U2 - 10.1109/TDMR.2009.2036248
DO - 10.1109/TDMR.2009.2036248
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77953284142
VL - 10
SP - 295
EP - 300
JO - IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability
JF - IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability
SN - 1530-4388
IS - 2
ER -