Characteristics of Schottky barrier silicon nanocluster floating gate flash memory

The silicon nanocluster floating gate memory device based on the Schottky barrier metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (SB-MOSFET) was proposed. The silicon nanoclusters were formed via the digital gas-feeding low pressure chemical vapor deposition. Erbium silicide process was used to form the Schottky junctions at the source/drain. In addition to the SB-MOSFET operation, the program/erase times of the nonvolatile memory device were determined to be 10 ms and 100 ms under the + 18 and − 18 V gate bias conditions, respectively. Maximum memory window was 5.5 V and the charge retention characteristics were maintained with a memory window of 0.5 V at 10⁶ s.