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Thermal stability of metal-silicide nanocrystal nonvolatile memory with barrier engineered tunnel layers
Dong Uk Lee1, Seon Pil Kim, Dong Seok Han
1Quantum-Function Research Laboratory and Department of Physics, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
Abstract:
WSi2 nanocrystal nonvolatile memory devices were fabricated with a silicon oxide-nitride-oxide (SiO2: 2 nm/Si3N4:2 nm/SiO2:3 nm) tunnel layer. WSi2 nanocrystals of 2.5 nm diameters and a density of 3.6 x 10(12) cm(-2) were formed using radio frequency magnetron sputtering and annealing processes. The WSi2 nanocrystal nonvolatile memory device exhibited strong thermal stability during writing/erasing operations at temperatures up to 125 degrees C. When the writing/erasing voltages were applied at +10 V/-10 V for 500 ms, the memory window of the initial approximately 2.6 V decreased by approximately 1.1 V at 25 degrees C and 0.4 V at 125 degrees C after 10(4) sec, respectively. These results show that WSi2 nanocrystals with barrier-engineered tunnel layers are possible for application in nonvolatile memory devices.
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