Low Voltage Program/Erase Characteristics of Si Nanocrystal Memory with Damascene Gate FinFET on Bulk Si Wafer

We propose a damascene gate FinFET with Si nanocrystals implemented on bulk silicon wafer for low voltage flash memory device. The use of optimized SRON (Silicon-Rich Oxynitride) process allows a high degree of control of the Si excess in the oxide. The FinFET with Si nanocrystals shows high program/erase (P/E) speed, large $V_{TH}$ shifts over 2.5V at 12V/$10{\mu}s$ for program and -12V/1ms for erase, good retention time, and acceptable endurance characteristics. Si nanocrystal memory with damascene gate FinFET is a solution of gate stack and voltage scaling for future generations of flash memory device. Index Terms-FinFET, Si-nanocrystal, SRON(Si-Rich Oxynitride), flash memory device.