Understanding the kinetics of Metal Induced Lateral Crystallization process to enhance the poly-Si channel quality and current conduction in 3-D NAND memory

High Mobility and GIDL Erase-Compatible Characteristics in Hybrid Channel (Poly-Si/IGO) for Ultrahigh 3D NAND Flash Memory Applications

“…Additionally, the proposed HC FET achieved higher mobility characteristics than the 40 cm 2 /V•s of the MILC technology. 6 However, the proposed HC structure exhibits a degraded SS value compared with the IGO channel. This degradation is considered to result from an unstable interface state between the two channels, necessitating a more comprehensive analysis of the interfacial properties of the proposed HC structure, which will be analyzed in Figure 4 later.…”

“…Here, the proposed HC FET device exhibits not only significantly higher mobility (63.78 cm 2 /V·s) compared to the poly-Si channel (14.33 cm 2 /V·s) reported data but also surpasses the mobility values of the IGO FET devices with thicknesses of both 20 nm (57.14 cm 2 /V·s) and 10 nm (43.15 cm 2 /V·s). Additionally, the proposed HC FET achieved higher mobility characteristics than the 40 cm 2 /V·s of the MILC technology . However, the proposed HC structure exhibits a degraded SS value compared with the IGO channel.…”

“…The conventional 3D NAND flash memory with a poly-Si channel has suffered from low mobility issues at the read operation due to grain boundary defects. , To address this issue, metal-induced lateral crystallization technologies have been developed to enhance the mobility of poly-Si. , However, as the number of layers increases, additional technical challenges, such as unintended solid phase crystallization issues, have arisen to be solved . As another alternative solution, an approach employing n-type oxide has been introduced, which offers higher mobility, lower off-leakage current, and superior area uniformity characteristics compared to the poly-Si channel .…”

“…3D NAND flash memory has been leading the nonvolatile memory market due to its ideal structure that can increase bit-density through stacking technology. − Nevertherless, it has several technical challenges associated with achieving more stacking layers, including high mobility and proper gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL) erase characteristics. − …”

Effects of crystallinity of silicon channels formed by two metal-induced lateral crystallization methods on the cell current distribution in NAND-type 3D flash memory

“…1) Therefore, cell conductance degradation owing to the increasing number of WL stacks is a critical issue. State-of-the-art metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) techniques 2,3) are some of the most promising techniques in 3D flash memory with ultrahigh (>300) WL stacks; [4][5][6] this technique is called "single MILC" in this study. Meanwhile, "Regional MILC," a unique technique, is another MILC candidate.…”