A theoretical investigation was made of H- and O-incorporation effects on the memory characteristics of N vacancies in the SiN layer of a metal–oxide–nitride–oxide–semiconductor (MONOS) type memory. The present calculations showed that N vacancy maintains high program/erase (P/E) cycle endurance characteristics, regardless of the existence of H and O atoms. It was also found that the incorporation of an H atom was energetically favorable for N vacancy, whereas the incorporation of such an atom was unfavorable for O-incorporated N vacancy. The present results indicate clearly that realistic process conditions, in which incorporation of H and O atoms was inevitable, do not affect memory characteristic of MONOS-type memory having N vacancies in the SiN layer, and, therefore, such a memory was desirable and feasible for future memories.

Atomistic Design of Guiding Principles for High Quality Metal–Oxide–Nitride–Oxide–Semiconductor Memories: First Principles Study of H and O Incorporation Effects for N Vacancies in SiN Charge Trap Layers. K.Yamguchi, A.Otake, K.Kamiya, Y.Shigeta, K.Shiraishi: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2011, 50[4], 04DD05