Hongrae
Joh‡
a,
Sangho
Lee‡
a,
Jinho
Ahn
*b and
Sanghun
Jeon
*a
aSchool of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291, Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. E-mail: jeonsh@kaist.ac.kr
bDivision of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seonhdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea. E-mail: jhahn@hanyang.ac.kr
First published on 16th August 2024
The ferroelectric NAND flash memory devices have garnered interest because of their rapid switching speed, low operating voltage, and superior reliability in comparison to conventional charge-trap flash memory. In particular, hafnia-based ferroelectrics have been intensively studied thanks to their relatively low crystallization temperature, CMOS compatibility, and excellent scaling characteristics. However, when processing the 3D integration, FeNAND devices based on hafnia encounter thermal instability issues due to the high process temperature required for both deposition and annealing of the poly-Si channel. Furthermore, FeNAND devices suffer from the read/pass disturbance and narrow memory window (MW) stems from the sub-loop characteristics and intrinsic small coercive field of hafnia ferroelectrics. To address these issues, we propose oxide channel dual-port FeNAND devices with additional gate dielectric and gate metal on the opposite side of the ferroelectrics from the channel layer. The thermal stability and disturbance issues are resolved with the low-temperature process oxide channel (<300 °C) and an extra gate stack. We experimentally verified that our devices show a broad MW range of 10 V, operate using quad-level-cell technology, and exhibit excellent levels of reliability. In addition, considering the findings from the experiments, we propose a 3D process integration strategy and evaluate the characteristics of dual-port 3D FeNAND devices using TCAD modeling.
Nevertheless, hafnia ferroelectrics are still challenging to integrate into NAND flash memory owing to their intrinsic limitations, such as thermal instability,11–13 relatively low coercive electric field (EC),14,15 and sub-loop characteristics.16,17 Considering the fabrication process of FeNAND devices, the high temperature poly-Si channel process is followed by the deposition of the ferroelectric layer in accordance with the conventional V-NAND fabrication sequence.18 However, this process can seriously deteriorate hafnia ferroelectrics. Moreover, the sub-loop features of hafnia ferroelectrics allow for polarization switching to occur even under low-voltage settings, making it difficult to achieve disturbance-free multi-level-cell (MLC) operation in FeNAND devices, especially when the memory window (MW) is quite small, below 4 V. Hence, it is necessary to devise techniques for FeNAND MLC operation that employ channel materials capable of being deposited and activated at low temperatures, while also extending the effective MW and minimizing disturbances with the stored state in each cell.
Prior research on FeNAND devices mostly concentrated on the MF(I)S or MFMIS structures, where M represents metal, F represents ferroelectric, I represents insulator, and S represents semiconductor.19–23 A significant amount of research has been carried out on FeNAND device structures with MF(I)S configurations, with the goal of achieving seamless compatibility with V-NAND integration methods. Nevertheless, FeNAND devices with MF(I)S structure still have difficulties associated with limited MW, interference, and reliability concerns. The structure of MFMIS can guarantee a high MW by ensuring a capacitance ratio match between the ferroelectric and dielectric insulator layers. However, the integration of thick gate stacks and metal interlayers into 3D architectures is complicated, and problems related to disturbance continue to exist. Therefore, the importance of 3D stacking FeNAND devices with uninterrupted operation has also been increased.
Our proposal involves the use of dual-port FeNAND devices with oxide channels, which consist of heterogeneous gate insulators made of both ferroelectric and dielectric materials. Fig. 1a shows the schematic of the device, whereas Fig. 1b shows the transmission electron microscope (TEM) image. In order to decrease the elevated thermal budget of the poly-Si fabrication process, the channel layer was made of Al-doped InZnSnO (Al:IZTO). The Al:IZTO oxide semiconductor demonstrates superior properties when subjected to low-temperature procedures of 300 °C or below. This effectively resolves the issue of thermal degradation in the underlying ferroelectric layer caused by the poly-Si fabrication technique.20,24,25 Additionally, to address potential mobility issues in the oxide channel, we utilized Al:IZTO, which is known for its relatively high mobility.26 Compared to the widely used IGZO, Al:IZTO exhibits improved carrier conduction paths and enhanced mobility due to the expanded overlap of the symmetric spherical 5s orbitals of In and Sn ions. Furthermore, Al:IZTO can be manufactured using processes and equipment similar to those employed for IGZO films. Therefore, Al:IZTO is regarded as an enhanced oxide semiconductor of IGZO, which is why we selected it as our channel layer. To form a dual-port layout, the dielectric gate insulator and an extra gate metal are placed on the opposite side of the ferroelectrics compared to the channel layer, which allows for a wide MW. Fig. 1c illustrates the mechanism of MW amplification in a dual-port FeNAND device configuration. It is important to understand that the position of the channel can be altered by adjusting the bias of the writing gate (WG, ferroelectric side gate) and read gate (RG, dielectric side gate). Applying voltage to the WG causes electrons to accumulate in proximity to the ferroelectric gate insulator, resulting in the formation of the channel. In contrast, the application of voltage to the RG causes electrons to accumulate in proximity to the dielectric gate insulator. Nevertheless, the ferroelectric maintains a constant remanent polarization (Pr) throughout. Consequently, the application of voltage to the WG and RG alters the effective capacitance, resulting in the expansion of the MW according to the capacitance equation depicted in Fig. 1c. The MW with RG read operation (MWRG) is a capacitance matching parameter with RG read (γRG) times wider than the MW with WG read operation (MWWG). The γRG is denoted as CWG/CDE or ∂Vth,WG/∂Vth,RG. CWG represents the equivalent capacitance of the series connection of the ferroelectric and channel layers, while CDE represents the capacitance of the dielectric layer. Vth,WG refers to the threshold voltage with WG read, and Vth,RG refers to the threshold voltage with RG read.27 In addition, we successfully accomplished disturb-free operation using the dual-port configuration. When performing read and pass operations, the electric field (E-field) across the ferroelectric layer is decreased and disturbance is minimized by using RG. Finally, this work presents a technique for integrating dual-port FeNAND devices in a 3D structure. It also includes TCAD simulation results that estimate the electrical characteristics of the integrated devices to evaluate the viability of this 3D integration.
To confirm the Vth shift by the back gate bias applied on the opposite side of the gate during the read operation, the ID–VG curves of the dual-port FeNAND devices were analyzed. The curves for WG bias and RG bias are shown in Fig. 3a and b, respectively. The full-range ID–VG curves of dual-port FeNAND devices are depicted in Fig. S2a and b (ESI†). The Vth was adjusted by the WG and RG bias in response to the back gate bias. The shift in Vth is dependent on γ, which is directly proportional to the capacitance of the gate insulators. The capacitance matching parameter with WG read (γWG) and RG read were obtained by analyzing the slope of Vth,WGversus VRG and Vth,RGversus VWG curves. Fig. 3c and d illustrate the relationship between Vth and WG with regard to VRG, and the relationship between Vth and RG with respect to VWG, respectively. The extracted γWG and γRG values are 0.11 and 15.1, respectively. The capacitance of the Hf0.5Zr0.5O (HZO) gate insulator on the WG side is greater than the capacitance of the Al2O3 gate insulator on the RG side. As a result, the change in Vth is significantly greater when VWG is utilized as a back gate bias. The γRG values also suggest that the MW can be enhanced by a factor of up to 15.
The ID–VG curves with RG read are measured, as shown in Fig. 4a, to verify the impact of memory window enhancement in dual-port FeNAND devices. The size of the MW is increased from 0.7 V to 10 V through the utilization of the capacitance matching effect. The relationship between the MWth,WG and MWth,RG and the write amplitude is depicted in Fig. 4b. A 1 μs write pulse is applied to the WG, and a read operation is performed using both the WG and RG. As previously shown, MWRG has a larger MW compared to MWWG. Fig. 4c depicts the correlation between MWth,RG as well as MWth,WG. We computed the value of γRG by utilizing the gradient of MWRG and MWWG. Consequently, MWRG was determined to be 12.2 times more than MWWG. The obtained γRG value is 12.2, which has a lower slope compared to the calculated value of 15.1. The slope of the calculated value is determined by Vth,RG, and VWG, whereas the slope of the obtained value is determined by MWRG and MWWG. This situation arises from the fact that each measurement method employs a distinct operational scheme. Fig. 3a employed a DC scheme bias to evaluate the ID–VG while applying a back gate bias. In Fig. 4a, a pulse scheme bias was used to compare MW. Thus, it is hypothesized that distinct γRGs were obtained by the use of DC and pulse methods. However, it demonstrates that dual-port FeNAND devices have significantly increased memory write capability in all operational scenarios.
Fig. 5a and b display the endurance and retention characteristics of dual-port FeNAND devices with RG read. We applied the pulse with a pulse amplitude of 8 V and a pulse width of 1 μs at WG, and read the MW with RG. While the MWRG experiences an increase in voltage from 0.7 V to 10 V, the expansion of the MW only works during read operations. Thus, the dual-port FeNAND devices have exceptional reliability features for more than 108 cycles and up to 105 seconds. Fig. 5c shows disturbance behaviors of single-port FeNAND devices with pulse bias amplitude. When the pulse bias amplitude and the number of cycles increase, the Vth,WG change (ΔVth,WG) is changed up to 34%. The detailed disturbance characteristics as a function of pulse amplitude and pulse width are shown in Fig. S3a–c (ESI†).
Single-port FeNAND devices experience a disturbance issue due to the write and read operations performed on the same gate. On the other hand, the issue can be resolved by physically dividing the gate into WG and RG in dual-port FeNAND devices. Fig. 5d illustrates the disturbance behaviors of dual-port FeNAND devices, using different pulse amplitudes. The Vth,RG change (ΔVth,RG) exhibits an insignificant magnitude of less than 6%. The experimental results demonstrate that the dual-port FeNAND successfully addresses the disturbance issue. Fig. 5e depicts the functioning of dual-port FeNAND devices for QLC operation. To characterize QLC operations of dual-port FeNAND, the incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) method was utilized. We applied a bias by increasing the pulse amplitude from 5 V in 0.2 V steps. The pulse width was set to 1 μs. The detailed ISPP method and Vth transitions are shown in Fig. S4a–c (ESI†). The enhanced MW allows for the 16 states without overlapping. The spacing between each state is also ensured to have about 0.2 V spacing regardless of the dispersion.
We used the simulation framework in Fig. S5a (ESI†) to evaluate the performance of the 3D vertical FeNAND devices based on the electrical properties of a 2D planar structure. The conventional ferroelectric model, with its challenges in precisely executing the read operation based on the ferroelectric state with remnant polarization (PFE), struggles to accurately represent the sub-loop operation. Hence, we referenced the approach in (ref. 29) to convert and substitute the degree of ferroelectric polarization switching at the interface between the ferroelectric and the IZTO channel into an equivalent fixed charge (Qfix = PFE/1.6 × 1019), as depicted in Fig. S5b (ESI†). Further validating our methodology, Fig. S5c and d (ESI†) compare the ID–VG characteristics based on WG and RG read operation with the simulation results, demonstrating a match between the two. This comparison clearly substantiates the effectiveness of our approach.
Using the simulation framework indicated before, it is possible to integrate the prior gate stack into dual-port 3D FeNAND devices by testing the PGM, ERS, and read operations. As shown in the circuit design of Fig. 6a, the system consists of four strings, each consisting of five cells, as seen in Fig. 6b. We set the cell pitch size and the oxide spacers between cells to 50 nm, using SiO2 as the dielectric for the oxide spacers. The gate stack configuration was kept the same as that of the prior 2D planar device structure. Next, we conducted a thorough examination of the accuracy and reliability of the PGM, ERS, and read operations within the 3D multi-string structure depicted in Fig. 6c. Fig. 6d illustrates the magnitude of the electric field that is exerted on the FE layer in each string during the PGM/ERS operations, following the X-cut direction as shown in Fig. 6b. During the PGM operation, a strong electric field is selectively applied to the specific string and cell, whereas the electric field intensity in other cells is insignificant. It is crucial for reliable cell operation in a 3D NAND system, where different cells share word lines (WL) or bit lines (BL), to have disturb-free operation. This is because the intrinsic polarization switching mechanism of ferroelectrics can lead to accumulative switching or unwanted polarization state variation even under sub-coercive field intensity. In the ERS operation, it is verified that the electric field is efficiently applied to all target cells, with the opposite polarity compared to the PGM operation.
Following the PGM/ERS operations, we verified the read operation through WG and RG. Fig. 7a shows that the ID–VG characteristics vary with the read operation. We observe a significantly enlarged effective MW due to the body effect when we use the RG read method instead of the WG, mirroring the findings from the previous 2D planar cells. Fig. 7b demonstrates the advantage of RG read operation from the perspective of disturbance issues. Since the WG read directly applies the pass and read voltage to the gate adjacent to the FE cell, it applies a relatively high electric field to the FE layer, resulting in unavoidable disturbance issues. Our simulation results indicate that when the read voltage exceeds 5.4 V, the ferroelectric's electric field surpasses the Ec value, leading to a reversal in the polarization switching direction, meaning the failure of the memory operation. In contrast, the read voltage is applied from the RG located opposite the FE layer for the RG read operation. Even if the read voltage increases substantially, virtually no electric field is applied to the FE layer. Therefore, reliable functioning is achievable through negligible disturbance, even with repeated read operations. Fig. 7c shows the electric field profile when a pass voltage of 10 V and a read voltage of 10 V are applied. It can be seen that a strong electric field is applied to the FE layer for WG read, while for RG read, it is applied to Al2O3 layer adjacent to the RG. This confirms that using RG read can resolve disturbance issues while significantly securing a larger MW.
Subsequently, we conducted experiments to determine the most efficient RG configuration for the read operation of 3D dual-port FeNAND devices. Fig. 8a and b depict the string structures, showing the RG splitting and dividing for each cell in Fig. 8a and remaining undivided with a single RG for all cells in Fig. 8b. As depicted in Fig. 8c, the memory window, as determined by MW's governing equation, exhibits an inverse relationship with the CDE. The effective area (ADE,U) of the DE layer in contact with the RG and its capacitance value (CDE,U) are significantly greater when an undivided RG is utilized as opposed to a divided RG. This increase reduces the amplification impact of the memory window caused by the body effect. Fig. 8d illustrates the correlation between the number of cells and the variations in the MW during the RG read process. With an increase in the number of cells, the CDE,U values also increase in the undivided RG structure, leading to a notable reduction in MW. Therefore, when employing the RG operation, it is essential to isolate the read gate for every individual cell, which requires a particular process scheme. Fig. S6 (ESI†) illustrates the procedural arrangement for the divided RG structure. It should be noted that our simulation did not consider several performance variables that may arise in a real 3D dual-port FeNAND architecture. In actual cases, the reduction in the effective area of the FE layer may result in conductivity variations due to the random configuration of FE/DE in the polycrystalline structure and potential uniformity issues during ferroelectric material deposition in high aspect ratio conditions.
We evaluated the electrical characteristics, such as ID–VG curves, memory window, and reliability (endurance and retention), of FeNAND devices using the Keithley 4200A. We used the JEM-2100F HR by JEOL to capture the TEM image of a dual-port FeNAND device. Sentaurus TCAD carried out the 3D FeNAND device simulations.
CTF-NAND | Charge trap NAND flash memory |
V-NAND | Vertically stacked NAND |
PGM | Programming |
ERS | Erasing |
FeNAND | Ferroelectric NAND flash memory |
E C | Coercive electric field |
MLC | Multi-level-cell |
MW | Memory window |
MFMIS | M: metal, F: ferroelectric, I: insulator, S: semiconductor |
TEM | Transmission electron microscope |
Al:IZTO | Al-doped InZnSnO |
WG | Write gate |
RG | Read gate |
P r | Remanent polarization |
MWRG | MW with RG read operation |
γ RG | Capacitance matching parameter with RG read |
MWWG | MW with WG read operation |
C WG | Equivalent capacitance of series connection of ferroelectric and channel layers |
C DE | Capacitance of dielectric layer |
V th,WG | Threshold voltage with WG read |
V th,RG | Threshold voltage with RG read |
E-field | Effective electric field |
DG | Double gate |
SG | Single gate |
γ WG | Capacitance matching parameter with WG read |
ΔVth,WG | V th,WG change |
ΔVth,RG | V th,RG change |
P FE | Ferroelectric state with remnant polarization |
WL | Word line |
BL | Bit line |
A DE,U | Effective area of undivided RG |
C DE,U | Dielectric capacitance value of undivided RG |
PEALD | Plasma-enhanced-atomic-layer-deposition |
Footnotes |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Fig. S1: Polarization versus electric-field curve and XRD spectra of ferroelectric HZO layer; Fig. S2: Full-range ID–VG curves of dual-port FeNAND devices; Fig. S3: Disturbance behaviors of single-port FeNAND devices; Fig. S4: ISPP method schematics and transition of Vth for dual-port FeNAND devices; Fig. S5: Simulation framework, methodology of fixed charge for polarization switching simulation and verification of consistency between TCAD models and experimental data; Fig. S6: 3D FeNAND devices integration process schematics and comparison of the number of bits per unit cell area between conventional and dual-port FeNAND devices. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d4tc02210f |
‡ H. Joh and S. Lee contributed equally. |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2024 |