Nanoscale Floating-Gate Characteristics of Colloidal Au Nanoparticles Electrostatically Assembled on Si Nanowire Split-Gate Transistors

Abstract

Flash memories are one of the most widely manufactured nonvolatile memory structures in today`s semiconductor industry. Nanoscale floating-gate characteristic of colloidal Au nanoparticles electrostatically assembled on the oxidized surface of Si nanowires have been investigated. The Si nanowire split-gate transistor structure was fabricated by electron beam lithography and subsequent reactive ion etching. Colloidal Au nanoparticles with ~5 nm diameters were selectively deposited onto the Si nanowire surface by 2 min electrophoresis. It was found that electric fields applied to the self-aligned split side gates allowed charge to be transferred on the Au nanoparticles. It was observed that the depletion mode cutoff voltage, induced by the self-aligned side gates, was shifted by more than 1 V after Au nanoparticles electrophoresis. This may be due to the semi-one dimensional nature of the narrow Si nanowire transport channel, having much enhanced sensitivity to charges on the surface.