Nonvolatile field effect transistors based on protons and Si/SiO{sub 2}Si structures

Technical Report · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/486142· OSTI ID:486142

Warren, W L; Vanheusden, K; Fleetwood, D M; Schwank, J R; Winokur, P S; Knoll, M G ^[1]; Devine, R A.B. ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. France Telecom/CNET, Meylan (France)

Recently, the authors have demonstrated that annealing Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si structures in a hydrogen containing ambient introduces mobile H{sup +} ions into the buried SiO{sub 2} layer. Changes in the H{sup +} spatial distribution within the SiO{sub 2} layer were electrically monitored by current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The ability to directly probe reversible protonic motion in Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si structures makes this an exemplar system to explore the physics and chemistry of hydrogen in the technologically relevant Si/SiO{sub 2} structure. In this work, they illustrate that this effect can be used as the basis for a programmable nonvolatile field effect transistor (NVFET) memory that may compete with other Si-based memory devices. The power of this novel device is its simplicity; it is based upon standard Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si technology and forming gas annealing, a common treatment used in integrated circuit processing. They also briefly discuss the effects of radiation on its retention properties.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 486142
• Report Number(s): SAND--97-0663C; CONF-970711--6; ON: DE97003728
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
ANNEALING
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
ION IMPLANTATION
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
PROTONS
SILICON
SILICON OXIDES