Charge detrapping and dielectric breakdown of nanocrystalline zinc oxide embedded zirconium-doped hafnium oxide high-k dielectrics for nonvolatile memories

摘要

Charge detrapping and dielectric breakdown phenomena of the nanocrystalline zinc oxide embeddednzirconium-doped hafnium oxide high-k dielectric have been investigated. Charges were loosely ornstrongly retained at the nanocrystal sites which were saturated above a certain stress voltage. Fromnthe polarity change of the relaxation current, it was confirmed that the high-k part of the dielectricnfilm was broken under a high gate bias voltage condition while the nanocrystals still retainedncharges. These charges were gradually released. These unique characteristics are important to thenperformance and reliability of the memory device.