Experimental Study of FinFET-based FOI-MAHAS Charge Trapping Memory with Improved Operation Characteristics

For the enhancement of scalability, performance and operation efficiency for future embedded NOR-type flash memory, a novel kind of p-channel fin-on-insulator (FOI) FinFET charge trapping memory device with HfO2 charge trapping layer, Al2O3 tunneling layer and blocking layers as well as [TiN/W] metal gate (Metal/Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3/Si, MAHAS) have been proposed and fabricated. Afterwards, we systematically investigate the static electrical performance, program/erase speed, date retention and endurance characteristics for the p-channel FOl-MAHAS memory. Lower program/erase (P/E) voltages, higher P/E speed, along with improved data retention and endurance characteristics are experimentally realized. Therefore, the proposed p-channel FOl-MAHAS charge trapping memory exhibits great potential for embedded flash memory applications.