• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.254-254
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• 2011

The memories with nano-particles are very attractive because they are promising candidates for low operating voltage, long retention time and fast program/erase speed. In recent, various nano-floating gate memories with metal-oxide nanocrystals embedded in organic and inorganic layers have been reported. Because of the carrier generation in semiconductor, induced photon pulse enhanced the program/erase speed of memory device. We studied photo-induced electrical properties of these metal-oxide nanocrystal memory devices. At first, 2~10-nm-thick Sn and In metals were deposited by using thermal evaporation onto Si wafer including a channel with $n^+$ poly-Si source/drain in which the length and width are 10 ${\mu}m$ each. Then, a poly-amic-acid (PAA) was spin coated on the deposited Sn film. The PAA precursor used in this study was prepared by dissolving biphenyl-tetracarboxylic dianhydride-phenylene diamine (BPDA-PDA) commercial polyamic acid in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidon (NMP). Then the samples were cured at 400$^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour in N atmosphere after drying at 135$^{\circ}C$ for 30 min through rapid thermal annealing. The deposition of aluminum layer with thickness of 200 nm was followed by using a thermal evaporator, and then the gate electrode was defined by photolithography and etching. The electrical properties were measured at room temperature using an HP4156a precision semiconductor parameter analyzer and an Agilent 81101A pulse generator. Also, the optical pulse for the study on photo-induced electrical properties was applied by Xeon lamp light source and a monochromator system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.831-837
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• 2002

Scaled SONOS transistors have been fabricated by 0.35$\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS standard logic process. The thickness of stacked ONO(blocking oxide, memory nitride, tunnel oxide) gate insulators measured by TEM are 2.5 nm, 4.0 nm and 2.4 nm, respectively. The SONOS memories have shown low programming voltages of ${\pm}$8.5 V and long-term retention of 10-year Even after 2 ${\times}$ 10$\^$5/ program/erase cycles, the leakage current of unselected transistor in the erased state was low enough that there was no error in read operation and we could distinguish the programmed state from the erased states precisely The tight distribution of the threshold voltages in the programmed and the erased states could remove complex verifying process caused by over-erase in floating gate flash memory, which is one of the main advantages of the charge-trap type devices. A single power supply operation of 3 V and a high endurance of 1${\times}$10$\^$6/ cycles can be realized by the programming method for a flash-erased type EEPROM.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.07c
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• pp.1331-1333
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• 2001

In this study a measurement equipment was designed and made for the nonlinear dielectric constants in dielectrics. The determining method of the nonlinear dielectric constants also was proposed. The measurement equipment was consisted of the wave generation part, the high voltage amplifier part, the measurement part and the data acquisition part. In this equipment the measurement control and the data processing could be conducted by computer. In order to determine the nonlinear dielectric constants alternating sign-wave electric fields are applied to dielectrics with different magnitude and the waves of the electric fields and the response from dielectrics are stored in computer memories. The harmonics of dielectric displacement are obtained by the Fourier transformation of these waves. The nonlinear dielectric constants are determined at the relatively low-field region. The experiment for PZT ceramic samples was done by the equipment and the determining method and as the result meaningful data were obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.759-763
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• 2016

We demonstrate the utilization of ion gel gate dielectrics for operating non-volatile transistor memory devices based on polymer semiconductor thin films. The gating process in typical electrolyte-gated polymer transistors occurs upon the penetration and escape of ionic components into the active channel layer, which dopes and dedopes the polymer film, respectively. Therefore, by controlling doping and dedoping processes, electrical current signals through the polymer film can be memorized and erased over a period of time, which constitutes the transistor-type memory devices. It was found that increasing the thickness of polymer films can enhance the memory performance of device including (i) the current signal ratio between its memorized state and erased state and (ii) the retention time of the signal.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.28.2-28.2
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• 2011

Resistance random access memory (ReRAM) is a promising candidate for next-generation nonvolatile memory because of its advantageous qualities such as simple structure, superior scalability, fast switching speed, low-power operation, and nondestructive readout. We investigated the resistive switching behavior of tantalum oxide that has been widely used in dynamic random access memories (DRAM) in the present semiconductor industry. As a result, it possesses full compatibility with the entrenched complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processes. According to previous studies, TiN is a good oxygen reservoir. The TiN top electrode possesses the specific properties to control and modulate oxygen ion reproductively, which results in excellent resistive switching characteristics. This study presents fully room temperature fabricated the TiN/$TaO_x$/Pt devices and their electrical properties for nonvolatile memory application. In addition, we investigated the TiN electrode dependence of the electrical properties in $TaO_x$ memory devices. The devices exhibited a low operation voltage of 0.6 V as well as good endurance up to $10^5$ cycles. Moreover, the benefits of high devise yield multilevel storage possibility make them promising in the next generation nonvolatile memory applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.390-390
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• 2012

Information technology industries has grown rapidly and demanded alternative memories for the next generation. The most popular random access memory, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), has many advantages as a memory, but it could not meet the demands from the current of developed industries. One of highlighted alternative memories is magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). It has many advantages like low power consumption, huge storage, high operating speed, and non-volatile properties. MRAM consists of magnetic-tunnel-junction (MTJ) stack which is a key part of it and has various magnetic thin films like CoFeB, FePt, IrMn, and so on. Each magnetic thin film is difficult to be etched without any damages and react with chemical species in plasma. For improving the etching process, a high density plasma etching process was employed. Moreover, the previous etching gases were highly corrosive and dangerous. Therefore, the safety etching gases are needed to be developed. In this research, the etch characteristics of CoFeB magnetic thin films were studied by using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mixes. TiN thin films were used as a hardmask on CoFeB thin films. The concentrations of $O_2$ in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mix were varied, and then, the rf coil power, gas pressure, and dc-bias voltage. The etch rates and the selectivity were obtained by a surface profiler and the etch profiles were observed by a field emission scanning electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed to reveal the etch mechanism.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.1061-1066
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• 2012

A digital memory has been widely used as a device for storing information due to its reliable, fast and relatively simple control circuit. However, the storage of the digital memory will be limited by the inablility to make smaller linewidths. One way to dramatically increase the storeage capability of the memory is to change the type of stored data from digital to analog. The analog memory fabricated in a standard single poly 0.6um CMOS process has been developed. Single cell and adjacent circuit block for programming have been designed and characterized. Applications include low-density non-volatile memory, control of redundancy in SRAM and DRAM memories, ID or security code registers, and image and sound memory.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.996-1002
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• 2000

Ferroelectric (Ba, Sr) TiO$_3$(BST) thin films have attracted much attention for use in new capacitor materials of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). In order to apply BST to the DRAMs, the etching process for BST thin film with high etch rate and vertical profile must be developed. However, the former studies have the problem of low etch rate. In this study, in order to increase the etch rate, BST thin films were etched with a magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma(MEICP) that have much higher plasma density than RIE (reactive ion etching) and ICP (inductively coupled plasma). Experiment was done by varying the etching parameters such as CF$_4$/(CF$_4$+Ar) gas mixing ratio, rf power, dc bias voltage and chamber pressure. The maximum etch rate of the BST films was 170nm/min under CF$_4$/CF$_4$+Ar) of 0.1, 600 W/-350 V and 5 mTorr. The selectivities of BST to Pt and PR were 0.6 and 0.7, respectively. Chemical reaction and residue of the etched surface were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS).

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.205-212
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• 2002

The growth characteristics of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) $Pb(Zr_xTi_{1-x})O_3 (PZT) thin films were investigated for the application of high-density ferroelectric random access memories (FRAM) devices beyond 64Mbit density. The supply control of Pb precursor plays the most critical role in order to achieve a reliable process for PZT thin film deposition. We have monitored the changes in the microstructure and electrical properties of films on increasing the Pb precursor supply into the reaction chamber. Under optimized conditions, $Ir/IrO_2/PZT(100nm)/Ir capacitor shows well-saturated hysteresis loops with a remanent polarization (Pr) of $~28{\mu}C/textrm{cm}^2$ and coercive voltage of 0.8V at 2.5V. Other issues such as step coverage, compositional uniformity and low temperature deposition was discussed in viewpoint of actual device application.