Memory Effect in Silicon Nitride in Silicon Devices

The dominant dielectric used currently in silicon devices is silicon oxide. Its application for future devices will be impeded by several fundamental limitations which lead to low reliability of semiconductor devices and to the necessity of alternative dielectrics. Amorphous silicon nitride and oxynitride are considered now as alternative to silicon oxide in future devices. One of the unique property of amorphous silicon nitride is the electron and hole capture by the deep traps with extremely long life time (10 years) in the captured state (the memory effect). This property is employed in memory devices and microprocessors in computers. Despite numerous efforts the nature of traps responsible for the memory effect in this material is so far unclear. In this paper we discuss the nature of such traps using the quantum-chemical simulation. The calculations show that the defects responsible for the electron and hole capture in amorphous silicon nitride can be the Si-Si defects created by excess silicon atoms.