New non-volatile memory with extremely high density metal nano-dots

A new non-volatile memory with extremely high density metal nano-dots, MND (metal nano-dot) memory, was proposed and fundamental characteristics of the MND memory were evaluated. The MND film is used as a charge retention layer in the MND memory. The MND film consists of a thin oxide film that dispersively includes high density metal dots with nano-scale. The MND film is formed by using sputtering technique with a special sputtering target. The size and the density of the MND in the film are typically 2-3 nm and around 2/spl times/10/sup 13//cm/sup 2/, respectively, which were superior to that of Si quantum dot memory. Non-volatile memory operation at a relatively low voltage and good endurance characteristic were confirmed in the MND memory fabricated according to the conventional MOS process.