Atomistic Design of Guiding Principles for High Quality Metal–Oxide–Nitride–Oxide–Semiconductor Memories: First Principles Study of H and O Incorporation Effects for N Vacancies in SiN Charge Trap Layers

Abstract

We theoretically investigate H- and O-incorporation effects on memory characteristics of N vacancies in the SiN layer of metal–oxide–nitride–oxide–semiconductor (MONOS) type memory. The present calculations show that N vacancy maintains high program/erase (P/E) cycle endurance characteristics, regardless of the existence of H and O atoms. It is also found that the incorporation of an H atom is energetically favorable for N vacancy, whereas the incorporation of such an atom is unfavorable for O-incorporated N vacancy. The present results indicate clearly that realistic process conditions, in which incorporation of H and O atoms is inevitable, do not affect memory characteristic of MONOS-type memory having N vacancies in the SiN layer, and, therefore, such a memory is desirable and feasible for future memories.

Atomistic Study of Lateral Charge Diffusion Degradation During Program/Erase Cycling in 3-D NAND Flash Memory

“…In our previous study on the relationship of shallow traps and the lateral charge diffusion [21], it was found that the oxygen (O) in Si 3 N 4 nearby the SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 interface could form shallow traps and cause lateral charge diffusion. It has also been reported in [22]- [24] that the O-related defects could cause the collapse of a Si 3 N 4 layer. However, up to nowadays, the impacts of P/E stress on lateral charge diffusion has not been well studied.…”

HfO2 nanoparticles embedded within a SOG-based oxide matrix as charge trapping layer for SOHOS-type memory applications

“…As the need for increased Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) performance approaches the physical limits offered by conventional materials, research on new materials/architectures for memory applications has been constantly sought in order to meet the stringer specifications imposed on these devices [1,2]. Among the current memory technologies available (still dominated by the floating gate flash technology), the Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS)-memory, or floating trap memory, is one attractive candidate to realize flash-memory vertical scaling [3,4].…”

Negative-charge-storing mechanism of potassium-ion SiO2-based electrets for vibration-powered generators

“…However, it is well known that a stable charged state sensitively depends on the position of the Fermi level. To consider the relative stability of the neutral state and the negatively and positively charged states, we calculated the formation energy of the charged system (Eform) using 36,37 𝐸 form = (𝐸 defect (𝑞) + 𝐸 quartz (0)) − (𝐸 defect (0) + 𝐸 quartz (𝑞))…”