Synthesis and characterization of aerosol silicon nanocrystal nonvolatile floating-gate memory devices

This letter describes the fabrication and structural and electrical characterization of an aerosol-nanocrystal-based floating-gate field-effect-transistor nonvolatile memory. Aerosol nanocrystal nonvolatile memory devices demonstrate program/erase characteristics comparable to conventional stacked-gate nonvolatile memory devices. Aerosol nanocrystal devices with 0.2 mm channel lengths exhibit large threshold voltage shifts (.3 V), submicrosecond program times, millisecond erase times, excellent endurance ~.10 program/erase cycles!, and long-term nonvolatility (.10 s) despite thin tunnel oxides ~55–60 Å!. In addition, a simple aerosol fabrication and deposition process makes the aerosol nanocrystal memory device an attractive candidate for low-cost nonvolatile memory applications. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1385190#