Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Film Transistors Flash Memory with Silicon Nanocrystal Dot

We fabricated a flash memory by embedding a Si nanocrystal dot as the floating node for a low temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (LTPS-TFT). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed that the average Si dot size and density were approximately 5 nm and 8.5 x 10(11) cm(-2), respectively. Electron charging and discharging were clearly confirmed at room temperature by the transient behavior of the transfer curve. Furthermore, we evaluated the electronic behavior by varying the bias condition. For an improvement of the retention time and the electronic properties, high-pressure vapor annealing (HPVA), which exhibits even better performance for the fabrication of high-quality flash memory, was employed.