On the transient and steady-state transport of electrons and holes in the MNOS and MONOS devices

A novel electron and hole separation technique is described. This method can be applied to the Floating Gate and Metal Nitride Oxide Semiconductor (MNOS) non-volatile memory structures to study the charge transport in both steady and nonsteady-state modes of operation. Results on n and p-channel MNOS devices are presented. It is found that for positive polarity of the gate bias, electrons tunnel from the semiconductor (both n and p-types) and are trapped approximately 50A into the nitride. However, for negative gate bias, hole-tunneling from the semiconductor into the silicon nitride is the dominant mechanism. This result is in contrast with the existing interpretation based on a single carrier concept.