Effect of nitrogen plasma conditions on the electrical properties of silicon oxynitrided thin films for flash memory applications

A study on the electrical properties of plasma nitrided oxide gate dielectric in flash memory

“…The amount of interface trap was measured to be 9e11 which is three times higher than that of dry oxidation. The excessive trap located near interface is regarded as the evidence of positive charge trap of the plasma nitrided gate dielectric [1,2]. The uncommon peak near Vg ¼ 0 V in the C-V diagram illustrates V TH shift by electron trap/detrap of the trap sites in gate dielectric and appears clearly on the buried channel PMOS capacitor since its C-V curve changes mainly under inversion conditions with abundant supply of electrons from N-Well [6,7].…”

“…These principal advantages of plasma nitrided gate dielectric over conventional oxynitridation with NO or N 2 O have motivated much work on its utilisation, and plasma nitridation is now regarded as a promising technology for a reliable gate insulator for electrical erasable nonvolatile memory such as flash memory [1,2]. However, there remain many issues to be addressed if its electrical characteristics are considered [3].…”