Nitride Engineering for Improved Erase Performance and Retention of TANOS NAND Flash Memory

TANOS charge trap flash (CTF) with Al
₂
O
₃
-Si
₃
N
₄
-SiO
₂
memory stack and TaN metal gate is a candidate technology to replace conventional floating gate technology for multi-level NAND applications beyond the 32nm node. The main drawbacks of TANOS to date are poor erase performance (in terms of speed and/or saturated level) as well as insufficient retention in the highest programmed state.