The Effect of Different Stress Conditions on MONOS Breakdown for 3D NAND Flash Memory

Abstract

The influence of different stress methods on Metal-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (MONOS) layer breakdown was investigated. In this paper, two different stress modes, DC and AC stress, were applied to systematically study stress condition effects on MONOS breakdown. According to the electrical failure analysis (EFA) results, MONOS layer is more vulnerable to dielectric breakdown under AC stress due to its higher defects generation efficiency. Besides, the physical failure analysis (PFA) revealed different breakdown mechanisms for DC and AC stress modes. These results help understand different stress methods impact on 3D NAND flash reliability.