Temperature Effects on Nanocrystalline Molybdenum Oxide Embedded ZrHfO High-k Nonvolatile Memory Functions

Nonvolatile memory characteristics of the MOS capacitor with the nanocrystalline MoOx embedded Zr-doped HfO2 high-k gate dielectric on the p-type Si wafer were studied with respect to the temperature. With the increase of temperature, the memory window was enlarged and the Coulomb blockade effect was suppressed. At the same time, the interface quality was deteriorated, the leakage current was increased, and the lifetime was shortened. Also, the near interface traps were observed at the high temperature and the 1 MHz measurement frequency. They were caused by changes of mechanisms of charge transfer and trapping, such as the formation of the hole-rich accumulation layer, the thermal energy of the accumulated holes, and the electric conductivity of the high-k film.