Thin-Film ZnO Charge-Trapping Memory Cell Grown in a Single ALD Step

A thin-film ZnO-based single-transistor memory cell with a gate stack deposited in a single atomic layer deposition step is demonstrated. Thin-film ZnO is used as channel material and charge-trapping layer for the first time. The extracted mobility and subthreshold slope of the thin-film device are 23
$\hbox{cm}^{2}/\hbox{V}\cdot \hbox{s}$
and 720 mV/dec, respectively. The memory effect is verified by a 2.35-V hysteresis in the
$I_{\rm drain}$
–
$V_{\rm gate}$
curve. Physics-based TCAD simulations show very good agreement with the experimental results providing insight to the charge-trapping physics.