Study of localized tunnel oxide degradation after hot carrier stressing using a novel mid-bandgap voltage characterization method

Hot carrier damage, especially by hot holes, limits the reliability performance of nonvolatile memories (NVMs). The damage creates localized traps in the tunnel oxide and localized interface traps at the oxide/silicon interface. In this paper, we propose a novel method to independently quantify trap...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheng-Hung Tsai, Yen-Hao Shih, Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, Tzu-Hsuan Hsu, Kuang Yeu Hsieh, Liu, R., Chih-Yuan Lu
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Annealing
Channel hot electron injection
Charge carrier processes
Degradation
Electron traps
Flash memory
hot carrier damage
Hot carriers
midgap current
Nonvolatile memory
oxide degradation
Silicon
Voltage
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hot carrier damage, especially by hot holes, limits the reliability performance of nonvolatile memories (NVMs). The damage creates localized traps in the tunnel oxide and localized interface traps at the oxide/silicon interface. In this paper, we propose a novel method to independently quantify trapped charges localized in the oxide and at the interface. We applied the new method to probe the oxide degradation in nitride trapping memory and found (i) the oxide traps (N OT ) capture both electrons and holes, (ii) the retention degradation involves interface trap (N IT ) annealing, electron de-trapping, and hole de-trapping, (iii) upon baking, N IT annealing and electron de-trapping happen simultaneously while hole de-trapping dominates the long-term instability at 250degC, (iv) the V T instability can be improved by using an interface strengthening nitridation process.
ISSN:1541-7026
1938-1891
DOI:10.1109/IRPS.2009.5173267