Charge Trapping in Amorphous Dielectrics for Secure Charge Storage

The fundamental scientific ingredient in the current information society is charge trapping in dielectric materials. The current data storage device known as NAND flash is based on charge trapping in silicon nitride, and it has been widely used in semiconductor processing. The growth of information in human society has incessantly driven storage devices with higher information density. The evolution of higher density NAND flash has been advanced based on memory cell stacking, which necessitates an upscaling of the dielectric constant of charge-trapping dielectrics in the future. In this study, we demonstrate that the amorphous phase is a prerequisite for secure charge trapping in future high-dielectric constant charge-trapping dielectric materials, in which a lower process temperature is required. Additionally, we demonstrate that a composition-graded dielectric thin film is a promising solution for the low-temperature fabrication of NAND flash.