Peculiar aspects of nanocrystal memory cells: Data and extrapolations

Nanocrystal memory cell are a promising candidate for the scaling of nonvolatile memories in which the conventional floating gate is replaced by an array of nanocrystals. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a thorough investigation of the possibilities and the limitations of such new memory cell. In particular, we focus on devices characterized by a very thin tunnel oxide layer and by silicon nanocrystals formed by chemical vapor deposition. The direct tunneling of the electrons through the tunnel oxide, their storage into the silicon nanocrystals, and furthermore, retention, endurance, and drain turn-on effects, well-known issues for nonvolatile memories, are all investigated. The cell can be also programmed by channel hot electron injection, allowing the possibility to multibit storage. The suppression of the drain turn-on and the possibility of using this cell for multibit storage give us a clear evidence of the distributed nature of the charge storage.