Charge Trapping Memory Cell of TANOS (Oxide-SiN-Al 2 O 3 -TaN) Structure Erased by Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling of Holes

We present the TANOS (Si-Oxide-SiN-Al 2 O 3 -TaN) cell with 40 A-thick tunnel oxide erased by Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling of hole. Thanks to introducing high-k dielectrics, alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) as a blocking oxide, the erase threshold voltage can be maintained to less than - 3.0 V, meaning hole-trapping in SiN. We extracted the nitride trap densities of electron and hole for the TANOS cell. It is demonstrated that the TANOS structure is very available to investigate the trap density with shallower energy. The energy level of hole trap (1.28 eV) is found to be deeper than that of electron (0.8 eV). As the cycling stress is performed, persistent hole-trapping is observed unlike endurance characteristics of conventional floating-gate cell. The hole trapping during the cycling stress can be attributed to two possibilities. The injected holes are trapped in neutral trap of tunnel oxide and residue of holes which is not somewhat compensated by injected electrons may be accumulated in SiN. It is demonstrated the erase operation of the TANOS cell is governed by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of hole due to the field concentration across the tunnel oxide.