Articles
  • Charging characteristics of Ru nanocrystals embedded in Al2O3 matrix prepared by using the initial growth stage of Ru plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition
  • Won-Sub Kwacka, Hyun-Jin Choia,b, Woo-Chang Choib, Heung-Ryong Ohc, Seung-Yong Shind, Kyoung Il Moond, Ji-Yeon Kwake, Young-Keun Jeonga,* and Se-Hun Kwona,*
  • a National Core Research Center for Hybrid Materials Solution, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Korea b MEMS/NANO Fabrication Center, Busan Techno-Park, Busan 609-735, Korea c Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, #373-1 Kusong-dong, Yusong-gu, Daejon 305-701, Korea d Eco Materials & Processing Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, 7-47 Songdo-Dong, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon 406-840, Korea e Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Inha University College of Medicine, Incheon 402-751, Korea
Abstract
Ru nanocrystal layers were successfully prepared on the Al2O3/Si substrate by controlling the initial growth stage of Ru plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). The spatial density and average size of the Ru nanocrystals were carefully controlled by the number of deposition cycles during the Ru PE-ALD. When the number of deposition cycles reached 60, the maximum spatial density and average diameter of Ru nanocrystals were 2.5 × 1012 cm-2 and 3.8 nm, respectively. In order to measure the electrical characteristics of the nanocrystal floating-gate memory, a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structure (p-type Si/Al2O3/Ru nanocrystal layer/Al2O3/Pt) was fabricated without breaking the vacuum. The capacitancevoltage measurement of the MOS structure revealed that the incorporation of a Ru nanocrystal layer resulted in a large flatband voltage shift (4.1 V) at a sweep range of -5 to 5 V, which corresponds to a charge spatial density of 1.22 × 10-6 C/cm2. Therefore, the initial stage of Ru PE-ALD can potentially be exploited for next-generation floating-gate memory cells.

Keywords: Ruthenium, Nanocrystal, PE-ALD, Initial growth stageIntroduction.

This Article

  • 2012; 13(3): 338-342

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