• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.97-98
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• 2009

Tunneling barrier engineered charge trap flash (TBE-CTF) memory capacitor were fabricated using the tunneling barrier engineering technique. Variable oxide thickness (VARIOT) barrier and CRESTED barrier consisting of thin $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$ dielectrics layers were used as engineered tunneling barrier. The charge trapping characteristic with different metal gates are also investigated. A larger memory window was achieved from the TBE-CTF memory with high workfunction metal gate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.344-344
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• 2010

A capacitor with engineered tunnel barrier composed of High-k materials has been fabricated. Variable oxide thickness (VARIOT) barrier consisting of thin SiO2/HfO2/Al2O3 (2/1/3 nm) dielectric layers were used as engineered tunneling barrier. We studied the electrical characteristics of multi stacked tunnel layers for various RTA (Rapid Thermal Anneal) and FGA (Forming Gas Anneal) temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.7-8
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• 2008

The memory characteristics of charge trap flash (CTF) with $HfO_2$ charge trap layer were investigated. Especially, we focused on the effects of tunnel barrier engineering consisted of $SiO_2/Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ (ONO) stack or $Si_3N_4/SiO_2/Si_3N_4$ (NON) stack. The programming and erasing characteristics were significantly enhanced by using ONO or NON tunnel barrier. These improvement are due to the increase of tunneling current by using engineered tunnel barrier. As a result, the engineered tunnel barrier is a promising technique for non-volatile flash memory applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2009

In this study, we fabricated the engineered $SiO_2/Si_3N_4/SiO_2$(ONO) tunnel barrier with high-k $HfO_2$ trapping layer for application high performance flash MLC(Multi Level Cell). As a result, memory device show low operation voltage and stable memory characteristics with large memory window. Therefore, the engineered tunnel barrier with ONO stacks were useful structure would be effective method for high-integrated MLC memory applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.133-133
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• 2009

It is desirable to choose a high-k material having a large band offset with the tunneling oxide and a deep trapping level for use as the charge trapping layer to achieve high PIE (Programming/erasing) speeds and good reliability, respectively. In this paper, charge trapping and tunneling characteristics of high-k hafnium oxide ($HfO_2$) layer with various thicknesses were investigated for applications of tunnel barrier engineered nonvolatile memory. A critical thickness of $HfO_2$ layer for suppressing the charge trapping and enhancing the tunneling sensitivity of tunnel barrier were developed. Also, the charge trap centroid and charge trap density were extracted by constant current stress (CCS) method. As a result, the optimization of $HfO_2$ thickness considerably improved the performances of non-volatile memory(NVM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.129-130
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• 2009

The P/E characteristics of $HfO_2$ CTF memory capacitor with $SiO_2/HfO_2/Al_2O_3$(OHA) engineered tunnel barrier were investigated. After a growth of thermal oxide with a thickness of 2 nm, 1 nm $HfO_2$ and 3 $Al_2O_3$ layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) system. The band offset was calculated by analysis of conduction mechanisms through Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plot and Direct Tunneling (DT) plot. Moreover the PIE characteristics of $HfO_2$ CTF memory capacitor with OHA tunnel barrier was presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.189-190
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• 2008

The electrical characteristics of band-gap engineered tunneling barriers consisting of thin $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$ dielectric layers were investigated. The band structure of stacked tunneling barriers was studied and the effectiveness of these tunneling barriers was compared with that of the conventional tunneling barrier. The band-gap engineered tunneling barriers show the lower operation voltage, faster speed and longer retention time than the conventional $SiO_2$ tunnel barrier. The thickness of each $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$ layer was optimized to improve the performance of non-volatile memory.

• 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 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.415-416
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• 2009

The tunnel barrier engineered charge trap flash (TBE-CTF) non-volatile memory using CRESTED tunneling barrier was fabricated by stacking thin $Si_3N_4$ and $SiO_2$ dielectric layers. Moreover, high-k based $HfO_2$ charge trap layer and $Al_2O_3$ blocking layer were used for further improvement of the NVM (non-volatile memory) performances. The programming/erasing speed, endurance and data retention of TBE-CTF memory was evaluated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.159-160
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• 2012

지난 30년 동안 플래시 메모리의 주류 역할을 하였던 부유 게이트 플래시 메모리는 40 nm 기술 노드 이하에서 셀간 간섭, 터널 산화막의 누설전류 등에 의한 오동작으로 기술적 한계를 맞게 되었다. 또한 기존의 비휘발성 메모리는 동작 시 높은 전압을 요구하므로 전력소비 측면에서도 취약한 단점이 있다. 그러나 이러한 문제점들을 기존의 Si기반의 소자기술이 아닌 새로운 재료나 공정을 통해서 해결하려는 연구가 최근 활발하게 진행되고 있다. 특히, 플래시 메모리의 중요한 구성요소의 하나인 터널 산화막은 메모리 소자의 크기가 줄어듦에 따라서 SiO2단층 구조로서는 7 nm 이하에서 stress induced leakage current (SILC), 직접 터널링 전류의 증가와 같은 많은 문제점들이 발생한다. 한편, 기존의 부유 게이트 타입의 메모리를 대신할 것으로 기대되는 전하 포획형 메모리는 쓰기/지우기 속도를 향상시킬 수 있으며 소자의 축소화에도 셀간 간섭이 일어나지 않으므로 부유 게이트 플래시 메모리를 대체할 수 있는 기술로 주목받고 있다. 특히, TBM (tunnel barrier engineered memory) 소자는 유전율이 큰 절연막을 적층하여 전계에 대한 터널 산화막의 민감도를 증가시키고, 적층된 물리적 두께의 증가에 의해 메모리의 데이터 유지 특성을 크게 개선시킬 수 있는 기술로 관심이 증가하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 Si3N4/Ta2O5를 적층시킨 staggered구조의 tunnel barrier를 제안하였고, Si기판 위에 tunnel layer로 Si3N4를 Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) 방법과 Ta2O5를 RF Sputtering 방법으로 각각 3/3 nm 증착한 후 e-beam evaporation을 이용하여 게이트 전극으로 Al을 150 nm 증착하여 MIS- capacitor구조의 메모리 소자를 제작하여 동작 특성을 평가하였다. 또한, Si3N4/Ta2O5 staggered tunnel barrier 형성 후의 후속 열처리에 따른 전기적 특성의 개선효과를 확인하였다.