Iridium Nanocrystal Thin-Film Transistor Nonvolatile Memory with Si_3N_4/SiO_2 Stack of Asymmetric Tunnel Barrier

摘要

Iridium nanocrystals (Ir-NCs) lying on the Si_3N_4/SiO_2 tunneling layer have been demonstrated and Ir-NC-assisted thin-film transistor nonvolatile memory devices were successfully developed. Results show that Ir-NCs with a number density of 6 x 10~(11) cm~(-2) and a particle diameter of 4 to 12 nm can successfully be fabricated as charge trapping centers. Owing to the asymmetric SiO)2/Si_3N_4 tunneling layer that increases programming/erasing efficiency, a significant memory window of 5.5 V has potential to be applied to multibit memory devices. Furthermore, after 10~4s, the memory window is still about 4.0 V in logic states.