Micromachines (May 2019)

Investigation of Intra-Nitride Charge Migration Suppression in SONOS Flash Memory

  • Seung-Dong Yang,
  • Jun-Kyo Jung,
  • Jae-Gab Lim,
  • Seong-gye Park,
  • Hi-Deok Lee,
  • Ga-Won Lee

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10060356
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 6
p. 356

Abstract

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In order to suppress the intra-nitride charge spreading in 3D Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS) flash memory where the charge trapping layer silicon nitride is shared along the cell string, N2 plasma treated on the silicon nitride is proposed. Experimental results show that the charge loss decreased in the plasma treated device after baking at 300 °C for 2 h. To extract trap density according to the location in the trapping layer, capacitance-voltage analysis was used and N2 plasma treatment was shown to be effective to restrain the interface trap formation between blocking oxide and silicon nitride. Moreover, from X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, the reduction of Si-O-N bonding was observed.

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