Retention characteristics of gate-all-around metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor devices for the trap energy level dependence at elevated temperature

We present an investigation of the retention characteristics of three-dimensional (3D) gate-all-around metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor (GAA-MONOS) devices. The effect of retention charge loss in 3D GAA-MONOS devices at elevated temperatures has been experimented and studied by technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation. In particular, we considered the dependence of the trap energy level in the silicon nitride layer on the retention characteristics of the 3D GAA-MONOS devices by TCAD simulation. Here, simulation results showed that acceptor trap energy level considerably affects the retention charge loss compared with donor trap energy level in the silicon nitride layer that has a Gaussian trap distribution. Moreover, as the acceptor trap energy level becomes shallower, the effect on retention charge loss increases with increasing temperature. From these results, we confirmed that the simulation results for the retention characteristics of 3D GAA-MONOS devices were in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.