Switching mechanism in thin-oxide MNOS devices

The results of pulsed switching experiments and the dc
I-V
characteristics of thin-oxide (∼20 Å) MNOS devices indicate that the dominant switching mechanism is not necessarily the direct tunneling of electrons to and from states at or near the oxide-nitride interface. Instead, it appears that switching may actually be the result of the tunneling of electrons (holes) from the silicon conduction (valence) band into the nitride conduction (valence) band, with subsequent trapping in the nitride.