Electron Injection into Si Nanodot Fabricated by Side-Wall Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

We have fabricated a floating gate memory using Si nano-crystal dot on thermal SiO2 by a new method of side-wall plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at a low temperature of 430°C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses revealed that the average dot size and density were approximately 5 nm and 8.5×1011 cm-2, respectively. Electronic properties were investigated with metal–oxide–semiconductor-field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) by embedding the dots into CVD SiO2. Electron charging and discharging effect was clearly confirmed by the transient behavior of the capacitance and the transfer curve at room temperature. The number of electrons confined in a single dot was approximately one.