Robust Data Retention and Superior Endurance of Silicon–Oxide–Nitride–Oxide–Silicon-Type Nonvolatile Memory with NH₃-Plasma-Treated and Pd-Nanocrystal-Embedded Charge Storage Layer

Abstract

Ba(Zr 0.2 Ti 0.8 )O 3 (BZT) and 2 mol% Mn additional doped BZT (Mn-BZT) thin films were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO 2 /Si by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique under the same growth conditions. X-ray diffraction scans showed that both films were polycrystalline and preferentially (1 1 1)-oriented, and an enhanced crystallization effect was obtained after Mn doping. The parallel-plate capacitors of Au/BZT/Pt and Au/Mn-BZT/Pt were prepared to investigate the electric properties, respectively. The remanent polarization and the coercive electric field for Mn-doped BZT film were both smaller than those of undoped BZT film. Furthermore, Mn-doped BZT film exhibited a higher dielectric constant of 460 at zero bias, larger dielectric tunability of 69.0% and lower dielectric loss of 5.0‰ under an applied electric field of 615 kV cm −1 than those of undoped BZT film. The figure of merit for preferentially (1 1 1)-oriented BZT thin film was greatly enhanced from 94 to 138 by Mn doping. The enhanced dielectric behaviour by Mn doping could be mainly attributed to the decrease in electron concentration and oxygen vacancies and the reorientation of the defect complex.

Performance Revelation and Optimization of Gold Nanocrystal for Future Nonvolatile Memory Application

“…Metal NC materials such as gold, platinum, and tungsten are studied as the charge storage nodes because of their high density of states (DOS) around Fermi level, small perturbation against the quantum confinement effect, and large depth of a potential well. [11][12][13][14] The last advantage will theoretically lead to long-term retention time because the charge is confined in a threedimensional quantum well and hardly escapes. Among the metal NC materials, gold (Au) is the most popular because its work function is in the range from 4.8 to 5.2 eV, which aligns within the band gap of the Si substrate, leading to a high current ratio of I g,erase =I g,retention even for a thin tunneling oxide.…”