• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.155-165
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• 2010

As a promising candidate to replace the conventional floating gate flash memories, polysilicon-oxide-nitride-oxidesilicon (SONOS)-type nonvolatile semiconductor memories have been investigated widely in the past several years. SONOS-type memories have some advantages over the conventional floating gate flash memories, such as lower operating voltage, excellent endurance and compatibility with standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. However, their operating speed and date retention characteristics are still the bottlenecks to limit the applications of SONOS-type memories. Recently, various approaches have been used to make a trade-off between the operating speed and the date retention characteristics. Application of high-k dielectrics to SONOS-type memories is a predominant route. This article provides the state-of-the-art research progress of high-k dielectrics applicable to SONOS-type nonvolatile semiconductor memories. It begins with a short description of working mechanism of SONOS-type memories, and then deals with the materials' requirements of high-k dielectrics used for SONOS-type memories. In the following section, the microstructures of high-k dielectrics used as tunneling layers, charge trapping layers and blocking layers in SONOS-type memories, and their impacts on the memory behaviors are critically reviewed. The improvement of the memory characteristics by using multilayered structures, including multilayered tunneling layer or multilayered charge trapping layer are also discussed. Finally, this review is concluded with our perspectives towards the future researches on the high-k dielectrics applicable to SONOS-type nonvolatile semiconductor memories.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.273-276
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• 2004

Report ferroelectric memories based on 0.35$\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS technology ensuring ten-year retention and imprint at 175$^{\circ}C$. This excellent reliability resulted from newly developed BT-based ferroelectric films with superior reliability performance at high temperatures, and also resulted from robust integration schemes free from ferroelectric degradation due to process impurities such as moisture and hydrogen. The superior reliabilities at high temperature of ferroelectric memories using BT-based films are due to the random orientation by special bake treatments.

• 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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• 2012.08a
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• pp.108-109
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• 2012

This talk will begin with the demonstration of facile synthesis of silicon nanostructures using the magnesiothermic reduction on silica nanostructures prepared via self-assembly, which will be followed by the characterization results of their performance for energy storage. This talk will also report the fabrication and characterization of highly porous, stretchable, and conductive polymer nanocomposites embedded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for application in flexible lithium-ion batteries. It will be presented that the porous CNT-embedded PDMS nanocomposites are capable of good electrochemical performance with mechanical flexibility, suggesting these nanocomposites could be outstanding anode candidates for use in flexible lithium-ion batteries. Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) can generate uniform and periodic patterns within guiding templates, and has been one of the promising nanofabrication methodologies for resolving the resolution limit of optical lithography. BCP self-assembly processing is scalable and of low cost, and is well-suited for integration with existing semiconductor manufacturing techniques. This talk will introduce recent research results (of my research group) on the self-assembly of Si-containing block copolymers for the achievement of sub-10 nm resolution, fast pattern generation, transfer-printing capability onto nonplanar substrates, and device applications for nonvolatile memories. An extraordinarily facile nanofabrication approach that enables sub-10 nm resolutions through the synergic combination of nanotransfer printing (nTP) and DSA of block copolymers is also introduced. This simple printing method can be applied on oxides, metals, polymers, and non-planar substrates without pretreatments. This talk will also report the direct formation of ordered memristor nanostructures on metal and graphene electrodes by the self-assembly of Si-containing BCPs. This approach offers a practical pathway to fabricate high-density resistive memory devices without using high-cost lithography and pattern-transfer processes. Finally, this talk will present a novel approach that can relieve the power consumption issue of phase-change memories by incorporating a thin $SiO_x$ layer formed by BCP self-assembly, which locally blocks the contact between a heater electrode and a phase-change material and reduces the phase-change volume. The writing current decreases by 5 times (corresponding to a power reduction of 1/20) as the occupying area fraction of $SiO_x$ nanostructures varies.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.243-248
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• 2010

The emergence of different and disparate materials together with the convergence of both the 'old' and 'emerging' technologies is paving the way for integration of heterogeneous technologies that are likely to extend the limitations of silicon technology beyond the roadmap envisaged for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. Formulation of new information processing concepts based on novel aspects of nano-scale based materials is the catalyst for new nanoarchitectures driven by a different perspective in realization of novel logic devices. The memory technology has been the pace setter for silicon scaling and thus far has pave the way for new architectures. This paper provides an overview of the inevitability of heterogeneous integration of technologies that are in their infancy through initiatives of material physicists, computational chemists, and bioengineers and explores the options in the spectrum of novel non-volatile memory technologies considered as forerunner of new logic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 1998

In this paper, a new synapse cell with nonvolatile SONOS semiconductor memory device is proposed and it's fundamental function electronically implemented SONOS NVSM has shown characteristics that the memory value, synaptic weights, can be increased or decreased incrementally. A novel SONOS synapse is used to read out the stored analog value. For the purpose of synapse implementation using SONOS NVSM, this work has investigated multiplying characteristics including weight updating characteristics and neuron output characteristics. It is concluded that SONOS synapse cell has good agreement for use as a synapse in artificial neural networks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.31-32
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• 2010

In our previous reports [1-3], electron transport for the switching and memory devices using alkyl thiol-tethered Ru-terpyridine complex compounds with metal-insulator-metal crossbar structure has been presented. On the other hand, among organic memory devices, a memory based on the OFET is attractive because of its nondestructive readout and single transistor applications. Several attempts at nonvolatile organic memories involve electrets, which are chargeable dielectrics. However, these devices still do not sufficiently satisfy the criteria demanded in order to compete with other types of memory devices, and the electrets are generally limited to polymer materials. Until now, there is no report on nonvolatile organic electrets using nano-interfaced organic monomer layer as a dielectric material even though the use of organic monomer materials become important for the development of molecularly interfaced memory and logic elements. Furthermore, to increase a retention time for the nonvolatile organic memory device as well as to understand an intrinsic memory property, a molecular design of the organic materials is also getting important issue. In this presentation, we report on the OFET memory device built on a silicon wafer and based on films of pentacene and a SiO2 gate insulator that are separated by organic molecules which act as a gate dielectric. We proposed push-pull organic molecules (PPOM) containing triarylamine asan electron donating group (EDG), thiophene as a spacer, and malononitrile as an electron withdrawing group (EWG). The PPOM were designed to control charge transport by differences of the dihedral angles induced by a steric hindrance effect of side chainswithin the molecules. Therefore, we expect that these PPOM with potential energy barrier can save the charges which are transported to the nano-interface between the semiconductor and organic molecules used as the dielectrics. Finally, we also expect that the charges can be contributed to the memory capacity of the memory OFET device.[4]

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.37-40
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• 1999

For the first time, charge trapping nonvolatile semiconductor memories with the deoxidized oxynitride gate dielectric is proposed and demonstrated. Gate dielectric wit thickness of less than 1 nm have been grown by postnitridation of pregrown thermal silicon oxides in NO ambient and then reoxidation. The nitrogen distribution and chemical state due to NO anneal/reoxidation were investigated by M-SIMS, TOF-SIMS, AES depth profiles. When the NO anneal oxynitride film was reoxidized on the nitride film, the nitrogen at initial oxide interface not only moved toward initial oxide interface, but also diffused through the newly formed tunnel oxide by exchange for oxygen. The results of reoxidized oxynitride(ONO) film analysis exhibits that it is made up of SiO$_2$(blocking oxide)/N-rich SiON interface/Si-rich SiON(nitrogen diffused tunnel oxide)/Si substrate. In addition, the SiON and the S1$_2$NO Phase is distributed mainly near the tunnel oxide, and SiN phase is distributed mainly at tunnel oxide/Si substrate interface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.255-255
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• 2010

Recently, nonvolatile memories (NVM) of various types have been researched to improve the electrical performance such as program/erase voltages, speed and retention times. Also, the charge trap memory is a strong candidate to realize the ultra dense 20-nm scale NVM. Furthermore, the high charge efficiency and the thermal stability of SiC nanocrystals NVM with single $SiO_2$ tunnel barrier have been reported. [1-2] In this study, the SiC charge trap NVM was fabricated and electrical properties were characterized. The 100-nm thick Poly-Si layer was deposited to confined source/drain region by using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD). After etching and lithography process for fabricate the gate region, the $Si_3N_4/SiO_2/Si_3N_4$ (NON) and $SiO_2/Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ (ONO) barrier engineered tunnel layer were deposited by using LP-CVD. The equivalent oxide thickness of NON and ONO tunnel layer are 5.2 nm and 5.6 nm, respectively. By using ultra-high vacuum magnetron sputtering with base pressure 3x10-10 Torr, the 2-nm SiC and 20-nm $SiO_2$ were successively deposited on ONO and NON tunnel layers. Finally, after deposited 200-nm thick Al layer, the source, drain and gate areas were defined by using reactive-ion etching and photolithography. The lengths of squire gate are $2\;{\mu}m$, $5\;{\mu}m$ and $10\;{\mu}m$. The electrical properties of devices were measured by using a HP 4156A precision semiconductor parameter analyzer, E4980A LCR capacitor meter and an Agilent 81104A pulse pattern generator system. The electrical characteristics such as the memory effect, program/erase speeds, operation voltages, and retention time of SiC charge trap memory device with barrier engineered tunnel layer will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.173-173
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• 2010

$Bi_4Ti_3O_{12}$ ($B_4T_3$) is a unique ferroelectric material that has a relatively high dielectric constant, high Curie temperature, high breakdown strength, and large spontaneous polarization. As a result this material has been widely studied for many applications, including nonvolatile ferroelectric random memories, microelectronic mechanical systems, and nonlinear-optical devices. Several reports have appeared on the use of Mn dopants to improve the electrical properties of $B_4T_3$ thin films. Mn ions have frequently been used for this purpose in thin films and multilayer capacitors in situations where intrinsic oxygen vacancies are the major defects. However, no systematic study of the optical properties of $B_4T_3$ films has appeared to date. Here, we report optical data for these films, determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). We also report the effects of thermal annealing and Mn doping on the optical properties. The SE data were analyzed using a multilayer model that is consistent with the original sample structure, specifically surface roughness/$B_4T_3$ film/Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$/c-Si). The data are well described by the Tauc-Lorentz dispersion function, which can therefore be used to model the optical properties of these materials. Parameters for reconstructing the dielectric functions of these films are also reported. The SE data show that thermal annealing crystallizes $B_4T_3$ films, as confirmed by the appearance of $B_4T_3$ peaks in X-ray diffraction patterns. The bandgap of $B_4T_3$ red-shifts with increasing Mn concentration. We interpret this as evidence of the existence deep levels generated by the Mn transition-metal d states. These results will be useful in a number of contexts, including more detailed studies of the optical properties of these materials for engineering high-speed devices.