In this Letter, the characteristics of set process of hafnium oxide based resistance random access memory are investigated by different set processes with increasing compliance current. Through current fitting, carrier conduction mechanism of low resistance state changes from hopping to surface scattering and finally to ohmic conduction with the increase of setting compliance current. Experimental data of current-voltage measurement under successive increasing temperature confirms the conduction mechanism transition. A model of filament growth is eventually proposed in a way by merging discrete metal precipitates and electrical field simulation by comsol Multiphysics further clarifies the properties of filament growth process.

We fabricate a SiOC comb structure capacitor device, and apply mechanical stress into samples by bending. From I-V fitting, we obtain the energy barrier lowering β, and conclude that the electron transport in single damascene capacitor is due to Poole-Frenkel emission. Tension yields a decrease of energy barrier in the single damascene dielectric layer and an increase of leakage current compared to the unstressed sample. In contrast, compression stress yields the energy barrier increase and the leakage current decrease. The variation of leakage current is originated from the energy barrier change induced by mechanical stress.

Incorporation of nitrogen as an oxygen-confining layer in the resistance switching reaction region is investigated to improve the reliability of resistance random access memory (RRAM). The switching mechanism can be attributed to the formation and rupture of conduction filaments. A compatible WSiON (around 5 nm) layer is introduced at the interface of tungsten silicon oxide (WSiOx) and TiN electrode to prevent the randomly diffusing oxygen ions surpassing the storage region of the WSiON layer. The double-layer WSiOx/WSiON memory structure would enhance the endurance over 100 times so as to better confirm the WSiOx RRAM application of nonvolatile memory.

In this letter, a double active layer (Zr:SiOx/C:SiOx) resistive switching memory device with outstanding performance is presented. Through current fitting, hopping conduction mechanism is found in both high-resistance state (HRS) and low-resistance state (LRS) of double active layer RRAM devices. By analyzing Raman and FTIR spectra, we observed that graphene oxide exists in C:SiOx layer. Compared with single Zr:SiOx layer structure, Zr:SiOx/C:SiOx structure has superior performance, including low operating current, improved uniformity in both set and reset processes, and satisfactory endurance characteristics, all of which are attributed to the double-layer structure and the existence of graphene oxide flakes formed by the sputter process.

Incorporation of nitrogen as an oxygen-confining layer in the resistance switching reaction region is investigated to improve the reliability of resistance random access memory (RRAM). The switching mechanism can be attributed to the formation and rupture of conduction filaments. A compatible WSiON (around 5 nm) layer is introduced at the interface of tungsten silicon oxide (WSiOx) and TiN electro...

In this letter, a double-active-layer (Zr:SiO x /C:SiO x ) resistive switching memory device with a high on/off resistance ratio and small working current (0.02 mA), is presented. Through the analysis of Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra, we find that graphene oxide exists in the C:SiO x layer. It can be observed that Zr:SiO x /C:SiO x structure has superior switching performance and higher stability compared with the single-active-layer (Zr:SiO x ) structure, which is attributed to the existence of graphene oxide flakes formed during the sputter process. I - V characteristics under a series of increasing temperature were analyzed to testify the carrier hopping distance variation, which is further verified by our graphene oxide redox reaction model.

The electronic package with lead-free welding processes must be performed at higher temperature whereas the heat induces to mechanical stress. In this letter, we fabricate a low-k SiOC dielectric comb capacitor with dual damascene (DD) structures to study the mechanical stress influence on leakage current I leak in DD by bending samples. Tensile stress causes increase of the I leak because of the decrease of energy band barrier Φ of SiOC dielectric. In contrast, compress stress increases Φ of SiOC and decreases its I leak . Finally, we conclude that the electron transport in DD is dominated by Schottky emission. We found that the variation of I leak is attributed by the change of energy band barrier under mechanical stress.

This chapter discusses in detail a RS HfO2-based memory cell with a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) vertical structure in which the HfO2 was deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). The author carries out a statistic study on the effect of the HfO2 deposition process conditions on the resistive switching behavior. The chapter investigates the transient currents during 5-ns resistive switching operations. It proposes a short voltage pulse induced electroforming. The chapter models the current transport in metal-oxide-metal structures to gain an in-depth insight into the electroforming process. It reports the fabrication and electrical characterization of two-terminal multistate memory devices based on VO2/TiO2 thin film microcantilevers. The chapter reports on the feasibility of the Ge2Sb1Te4, Ge3Sb4Te8 and Ge2Sb2Te4 alloys and the effect of vacancies on their physical properties. It aims to determine. Controlled Vocabulary Terms atomic layer deposition; cantilevers; MIM structures

In this letter, we successfully produced resistive switching behaviors by nickel doped into silicon oxide at room temperature. The nickel element was doped into silicon oxide, which is a useful dielectric material in integrated circuit (IC) industries by cosputtering technology. Based on the proposed method, satisfactory reliability of the resistance switching device can be demonstrated by endurance and retention evaluation. We believe that the silicon oxide doped with nickel at room temperature is a promising method for resistive random access memory nonvolatile memory applications due to its compatibility with the IC processes.

This article proposes an edge-Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling method to make silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon thin film transistors possess not only 2 bit nonvolatile memory but also transistor switch functions. The 2 bit memory status is determined by measuring drain or source gate-induced drain leakage current, which can be suppressed by hole injection and electron erase after edge-FN tunneling. Because charge injection mainly occurs at the drain or source side during edge-FN tunneling operation, the device retains its transistor switch function without a threshold voltage shift during memory operation.

The characteristics of post-chemical mechanical polishing (post-CMP) low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) have been investigated in this work. Dielectric properties of HSQ are damaged by the CMP process. We propose NH3-plasma treatment to improve the characteristics of post-CMP HSQ film. Both of the leakage current and dielectric constant of NH3 plasma-treated HSQ are significantly decreased as compared with those of untreated HSQ. NH3 plasma treatment slightly nitridates the surfaces of the polished HSQ film. The thin nitride layer prevents moisture absorption in the post-CMP HSQ. As a result, the dielectric degradation of HSQ after the CMP process can be effectively recovered using the NH3 plasma treatment.

The interaction between copper interconnects and low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) film was investigated using a Cu/HSQ/Si metal insulation semiconductor capacitor and NH/sub 3/ plasma post-treatment. Owing to serious diffusion of copper atoms in HSQ film, degradations of the dielectric properties are significant with the increase of thermal stress. The leakage current behavior in high field con...

A novel multi-stacked Ti/TiN structure was proposed to enhance the barrier properties of chemical vapor deposited TiN film. Both the chlorine content and the resistivity of the multi-stacked Ti/TiN films are significantly decreased when compared with a single layer of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) TiN film with the same thickness. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) data showed that Ti atom distribution is fairly uniform to fill the grain boundary of TiN film. Therefore, the leakage current resulted from junction spiking was further reduced by the grain boundary effects when employing multi-stacked Ti/TiN as diffusion barrier layer instead of a single layer of TiN film.

The interaction between topper interconnects and low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane! (HSQ) film was investigated using a Cu/HSQ/Si metal insulation semiconductor capacitor and NH3 plasma post-treatment. Owing to serious diffusion of copper atoms in HSQ film, degradations of the dielectric properties are significant with the increase of thermal stress, The leakage current behavior in high field conduction is well explained by the Poole-Frenkel (P-F) mechanism. By applying NH3-plasma treatment to the HSQ film, however, the leakage current is decreased and P-F conduction can be significantly suppressed. In addition, the phenomenon of serious Cu penetration is not observed by means of electrical characteristic measurements and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis even in the absence of diffusion barrier layers. This indicates the copper diffusion in low-k HSQ film can be effectively blocked by NH3 plasma post-treatment.

The interaction between copper interconnects and low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) film was investigated using a Cu/HSQ/Si metal insulation semiconductor capacitor and deuterium plasma post-treatment. Owing to serious diffusion of copper atoms in HSQ film, the degradations of dielectric properties are significant with the increase of thermal stress. By applying deuterium plasma treatment to HSQ film, however, this degradation was alleviated. In addition, the phenomena of serious Cu penetration were not observed by means of electrical characteristic measurements and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis, even in the absence of diffusion barrier layers. This indicates that copper diffusion in low-k HSQ film can be effectively blocked by deuterium plasma post-treatment. Therefore, further improvement in RC reduction can be obtained due to the minimized thickness requirement for conventional barriers such as inorganic Si3N4 and metallic TaN layers.

This work has investigated the electrical and material characteristics of post-chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) methylsilsesquioxane (MSQ). Experimental results have shown that the dielectric properties of low k MSQ deteriorate after the CMP process. However, by applying H-2-plasma post-treatment, the degraded characteristics can be restored to a similar state as that of a pre-CMP MSQ film. Material and electrical analyses were performed to elucidate the detailed mechanisms of H-2-plasma treatment on post-CMP MSQ. H-2-plasma treatment provides active hydro en radicals to passivate the dangling bonds exposed in the MSQ after the CMP process. The hydrogen-rich passivation layer is hydrophobic and effectively prevents further moisture uptake. Therefore, a degradation-free CMP process can be achieved employing H-2-plasma treatment. (C) 2000 The Electrochemical Society. S0013-4651(00)04-098-2. All rights reserved.

The interaction between copper interconnects and low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) film was investigated using a Cu/HSQ/Si metal insulation semiconductor capacitor and deuterium plasma post-treatment. Owing to serious diffusion of copper atoms in HSQ film, the degradations of dielectric properties are significant with the increase of thermal stress. The leakage current behavior In high-field conduction was well explained by the Poole-Frenkel (P-F) mechanism. By applying deuterium plasma treatment to HSQ film, however, the leakage current was decreased and P-F conduction can be suppressed. In addition, the phenomena of serious Cu penetration were not observed by means of electrical characteristic measurements and secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis, even in the absence of diffusion barrier layers. This indicates that copper diffusion in low-k HSQ film can be effectively blocked by deuterium plasma post-treatment. Therefore, further improvement in resistance-capacitance reduction can be obtained due to the minimized thickness requirement for conventional barriers such as inorganic Si3N4 and metallic TaN layers. (C) 2000 The Electrochemical Society S0013-4651(99)08-022-2. All rights reserved.

The reliability of multistacked titanium/titanium nitride (Ti/TiN) films as a diffusion barrier has been investigated by electrical characteristic measurements and material analyses. Both the chlorine content and the resistivity of the multistacked Ti/TiN films are significantly decreased when compared with a single layer of chemical vapor deposited-TiN film with the same thickness. The endurance of the diffusion barrier to thermal stress is enhanced by increasing the number of stacked layers of Ti/TiN films. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy depth profiles of the multistacked Ti/TiN samples showed that Ti atom distribution is fairly uniform in filling the grain boundary of the TiN film. The result is consistent with the observation of X-ray transmission microscopy. Therefore, the leakage current resulting from junction spiking is further reduced by the grain boundary effects when employing multistacked Ti/TiN as the diffusion barrier layer instead of a single layer of TiN film.