Characterization of nanostructured memory

An Al-rich aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film is deposited on a p-type silicon substrate by radio frequency (RF) sputtering, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and electron beam physical vapor deposition (E-beam PVD) to form Al/Al-rich AlN/p-Si diodes. Al nanocrystals (nc-Al) are found to be embedded in the AlN matrix. One of the applications of the Al nanocrystals (nc-Al) embedded in the AlN matrix is in the area of non-volatile memory devices based on the charge storage in the material system. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of the diodes were determined by the charge trapping or de-trapping in the nc-Al confined in the gate oxide which leads to flat-band voltage shift (ΔVFB). The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics are affected by the electron trapping in the dielectric thin film for the diodes which went through the annealing process. In contrast, the diodes without annealing process are found to have enhanced the current conduction greatly in both reverse I-V characteristics and forward I-V characteristics.Bachelor of Engineerin