Impact of Annealing Temperature on Performance Enhancement for Charge Trapping Memory with (HfO2)0.9(Al2O3)0.1 Trapping Layer

Charge trapping memory (CTM) devices with the structure of [TiN/W]/Al ₂ O ₃ /(HfO ₂ ) _0.9 (Al ₂ O ₃ ) _0.1 /Al ₂ O ₃ /Si were fabricated, and the memory characteristics were investigated. High-κ (HfO ₂ ) _0.9 (Al ₂ O ₃ ) _0.1 film was utilized as the charge trapping layer, and the effect of post deposition annealing (PDA) conditions on its charge trapping characteristics was also studied. The memory device treated by high PDA temperature (1000 °C) shows enlarged memory window, faster program/erase (P/E) speed, better data retention and endurance performance, which should be ascribed to the intensive intermixing between HfO ₂ and Al ₂ O ₃ in the charge trapping layer. Therefore, the proposed memory devices exhibit great potential for future nanoscale memory applications.