An experimental study of lateral charge transfer in silicon nanocrystal layer embedded in SiO2 thin film

• Main Authors: Wong, J. I., Chen, T. P., Tay, Y. Y., Liu, P., Yang, M., Liu, Z., Yang, H. Y.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Microelectronics and semiconductor materials::Thin films
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/103957; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/24654
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Lateral charge transfer in a Si nanocrystal (nc-Si) layer embedded in a SiO2 thin film synthesized by Si ion implantation is investigated. When the nc-Si in one metal-oxide-semiconductor device is charged, the charging effect on both the charged device itself and the neighboring devices is monitored. With the existence of a continuous nc-Si layer in the spacing regions between the charged device and the neighboring devices, the charging operation induces a large flat-band voltage shift in the neighboring devices, and at the same time the charged device itself is also strongly affected in return. The phenomenon depends on both the nc-Si separation and the device spacing. It is attributed to the lateral charge transfer in the nc-Si layer. The result has an important indication for non-volatile memory applications of the nc-Si synthesized by the ion implantation technique.