Graphene Gate Electrode for MOS Structure-Based Electronic Devices

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 11; no. 12; pp. 5383 - 5386
• Main Authors: Park, Jong Kyung, Song, Seung Min, Mun, Jeong Hun, Cho, Byung Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 14-12-2011
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Dielectrics; Electrodes; Electronic devices; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronic structure of nanoscale materials : clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Flash memory (computers); Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; Gates; Graphene; Materials science; Memory devices; Metal oxide semiconductors; Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; Physics; Quantum mechanics; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Specific materials; Surface double layers, schottky barriers, and work functions; mechanical stress; tunneling current; charge-trap flash (CTF) memory; graphene gate electrode; Graphene; gate dielectric; Quantum gates; Memory devices; Work functions; Doping; MOS structure; Flash memories; Electronic structure; Mechanical stress; Non volatile memory; Quantum mechanics; Gallium tellurides; Monolayers; Quantum tunnel effect; High k dielectric; Reliability; Gates
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl202983x

We demonstrate that the use of a monolayer graphene as a gate electrode on top of a high-κ gate dielectric eliminates mechanical-stress-induced-gate dielectric degradation, resulting in a quantum leap of gate dielectric reliability. The high work function of hole-doped graphene also helps reduce the quantum mechanical tunneling current from the gate electrode. This concept is applied to nonvolatile Flash memory devices, whose performance is critically affected by the quality of the gate dielectric. Charge-trap flash (CTF) memory with a graphene gate electrode shows superior data retention and program/erase performance that current CTF devices cannot achieve. The findings of this study can lead to new applications of graphene, not only for Flash memory devices but also for other high-performance and mass-producible electronic devices based on MOS structure which is the mainstream of the electronic device industry.