Ultra-Small ZnO Nanoparticles for Charge Storage in MOS-Memory Devices

Abstract

ZnO-nanoparticles have gained considerable interest by industry and research due to their excellent properties. However, the agglomeration of nanoparticles is considered to be a limiting factor since it can affect the desirable physical and electronic properties of the nanoparticles. In this work, 1-to-5-nm-thick ZnO-nanoparticles deposited by dip-coating are studied. The results show that dip-coating leads to 1-D quantum confinement in ZnO (2-D nanostructures). Memory devices with ZnO-nanoparticles charge trapping layer show that a large memory window can be obtained at low operating-voltages due to the large available charge trap states in ZnO. Moreover, the excellent retention and endurance characteristics show that ZnO nanoparticles are promising for low-power memory applications.