HfAlO Tunnel Layer

WSi2 nanocrystal nanofloating gate capacitors with multistacked Si3N4/HfAlO high-k tunnel layers were fabricated and their electrical properties were characterized. The thicknesses of the Si3N4 and HfAlO tunnel layers were 1.5 and 3 nm, respectively. The asymmetrical Si3N4/HfAlO tunnel layer was modulated to enhance the tunneling efficiency to improve program and erase speeds. The flat-band voltage shift of the WSi2 nanofloating gate capacitor was about 7.2 V after applied voltages swept were from -10 to 10 V and from 10 to -10 V. Then, the program/erase speeds and the memory window under programming and erasing at +/- 7 V were 300 mu s and 1 V, respectively. As demonstrated in the results, the WSi2 nanocrystal memory with barrier-engineered Si3N4/HfAlO layers could be applied to enhance the program and erase speeds at low operating voltages for nanocrystal nonvolatile memory application. (C) 2012 The Japan Society of Applied PhysicsThis study was supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(Grant Nos. 2011-0018033 and 2011-0012006)