A Nonvolatile Memory Capacitor Based on a Double Gold Nanocrystal Storing Layer and High-k Dielectric Tunneling and Control Layers

We present a metal-insulator-semiconductor nonvolatile memory capacitor based on two gold nanoparticle charge storage layers, two HfO(2) layers, and a multilayer HfNO/HfTiO stack. The device exhibits an equivalent oxide thickness of 7.3 nm, a hysteresis of 15 V at a gate voltage of +11 to -8 V, and a storage charge density of 2.75x10(13) cm(-2). A leakage of 3.6x10(-5) A/cm(2) at -10 V, a breakdown voltage of 13.3 V, and good retention properties with a hysteresis window of 10 V following more than 10 h of consecutive write/erase operations with a +/- 7 V swing were demonstrated. The capacitor characteristics are frequency-independent in the 10 kHz-1 MHz range.