Abstract
Silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon devices with nanoparticles (NPs) as charge trapping nodes (CTNs) are important to provide enhanced performance for nonvolatile memory devices. To study these topics, the TiO x N y metal oxide NPs embedded in the HfO x N y high-k dielectric as CTNs of the nonvolatile memory devices were investigated via the thermal synthesis using Ti thin-film oxidized in the mixed O 2 /N 2 ambient. Well-isolated TiO x N y NPs with a diameter of 5-20 nm, a surface density of ∼3 × 10 11 cm -2 , and a charge trap density of around 2.33 × 10 12 cm -2 were demonstrated. The writing characteristic measurements illustrate that the memory effect is mainly due to the hole trapping. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.