Non-volatile Al2O3 memory using nanoscale al-rich Al2O3 thin film as a charge storage layer

This article describes the fabrication process and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of a new non-volatile Al2O3 memory with nanoscale thin film deposited by electron-cyclotron-resonance sputtering. Al-rich Al2O3 shows characteristics somewhere between Al and Al2O3 in the refractive index and wet etching rate. C-V characteristics of Al-rich Al2O3 memory show a large hysteresis window due to the Al-rich structure, while there is no hysteresis window in the case of stoichiometric Al2O3. This memory is expected to stay non-volatile for several years or more because the capacitance value after writing and erasing operation remained at most unchanged after 4 h at T = 85 degrees C. Also, another new memory structure comprising SiO2/Al2O3 and the Al-rich Al2O3 structure is proposed, which features increased mobility due to the reduction of electron scattering at the Si/Al2O3 interface.