Abstract
Although enhancement in electrical properties of flash devices with HfO 2 charge trapping layer has been reported, there are serious problems in retention characteristics. In this work, a novel SONOS-type flash device with TaN/Al 2 O 3 /HfO 2 /Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 /Si structure is presented. Experimental results show that the program/erase speeds of the proposed devices can be enhanced by over one thousand times and the retention characteristic is improved as well. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.