Investigation of charge loss characteristics of HfO2 annealed in N2 or 02 ambient

The retention characteristics of electrons and holes in hafnium oxide with post-deposition annealing in a N2 or 02 ambient were investigated by Kelvin probe force microscopy. The KFM results show that compared with the N2 PDA process, the O2 PDA process can lead to a significant retention improvement. Vertical charge leakage and lateral charge spreading both played an important role in the charge loss mechanisms. The retention improvement is attributed to the deeper trap energy. For electrons, the trap energy of the HOS structure annealed in a N2 or 02 ambient were determined to be about 0.44 and 0.49 eV, respectively. For holes, these are about 0.34 and 0.36 eV, respectively. Finally, the electrical characteristics of the memory devices are demonstrated from the experiment, which agreed with our characterization results. The qualitative and quantitative determination of the charge retention properties, the possible charge decay mechanism and trap energy reported in this work can be very useful for the characterization of hafnium charge storage devices.     

氮气或氧气气氛退火的氧化铪材料电荷泄漏情况研究

本文中, 使用开尔文探针显微镜,研究了不同退火气氛(氧气或氮气)情况下氧化铪材料的电子和空穴的电荷保持特性。与氮气退火器件相比,氧气退火可以使保持性能变好。横向扩散和纵向泄露在电荷泄露机制中都起了重要的作用。 并且,保持性能的改善与陷阱能级深度有关。氮气和氧气退火情况下,氧化铪存储结构的的电子分别为0.44 eV, 0.49 eV,空穴能级分别为0.34 eV, 0.36 eV。 最后得到,不同退火气氛存储器件的电学性能也与KFM结果一致。对于氧化铪作为存储层的存储器件而言,对存储特性的定性和定量分析,陷阱能级,还有泄漏机制研究是十分有意义的。     

Charge Loss Characteristics of Different Al Contents in a HfA10 Trapping Layer Investigated by Variable Temperature Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

Kelvin probe force microscopy （KFM） technology is applied to investigate the charge storage and loss characteristics of the HfAlO charge trapping layer with various AI contents. The experimental results demonstrate that with the increase of AI contents in the HfAIO trapping layer, trap density significantly increases. Improvement of data retention characteristic is also observed. Comparing the vertical charge loss and lateral charge spreading of the HfAIO trapping layers, the former plays a major role in the charge loss mechanism. Variable temperature KFM measurement results show that the extracted effective electron trap energy level increases with increasing AI contents in HfAIO trapping layer, which is in accordance with the charge loss characteristics.     

Comparison between N_2 and O_2 anneals on the integrity of an Al_2O_3/Si_3N_4/SiO_2/Si memory gate stack

In this paper the endurance characteristics and trap generation are investigated to study the effects of different postdeposition anneals(PDAs) on the integrity of an Al2O3/Si3N4/SiO2/Si memory gate stack. The flat-band voltage(Vfb)turnarounds are observed in both the programmed and erased states of the N2-PDA device. In contrast, this turnaround is observed only in the erased state of the O2-PDA device. The Vfbin the programmed state of the O2-PDA device keeps increasing with increasing program/erase(P/E) cycles. Through the analyses of endurance characteristics and the low voltage round-trip current transients, it is concluded that in both kinds of device there are an unknown type of pre-existing characteristic deep traps and P/E stress-induced positive oxide charges. In the O2-PDA device two extra types of trap are also found: the pre-existing border traps and the P/E stress-induced negative traps. Based on these four types of defects we can explain the endurance characteristics of two kinds of device. The switching property of pre-existing characteristic deep traps is also discussed.