Oxides grown on textured single-crystal silicon-dependence on process and application of EEPROMs

Abstract

The electrical properties of oxides grown on textured single-crystal silicon (TSC oxides) are dependent on the process used to roughen or texture the single-crystal silicon surface. The effects of different processing steps on the I-V, C-V, charge trapping, interface trap generation, and breakdown characteristics of TSC oxides are examined. By choosing a particular set of processing steps, a TSC oxide can exhibit enhanced conduction and very good charge trapping and breakdown characteristics, which make it an interesting dielectric for EEPROM applications. Floating-gate EEPROMs fabricated using this TSC oxide demonstrate the feasibility of this new technology. Programming, cycling, and retention characteristics of this EEPROM are presented. In particular, the retention data of the TSC EEPROM show an improvement over those of EEPROMs using oxides grown on untextured single-crystal silicon.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>