As a potential alternative to flash memory, HfO2/Al2O3 stacks appear to be a viable option as charge capture layers in charge trapping memories. The paper undertakes a review of HfO2/Al2O3 stacks as charge trapping layers, with a focus on comparing the number, thickness, and post-deposition heat treatment and γ-ray and white x-ray treatment of such stacks. Compared to a single HfO2 layer, the memory window of the 5-layered stack increased by 152.4% after O2 annealing at ±12 V. The memory window enlarged with the increase in number of layers in the stack and the increase in the Al/Hf content in the stack. Furthermore, our comparison of the treatment of HfO2/Al2O3 stacks with varying annealing temperatures revealed that an increased annealing temperature resulted in a wider storage window. The samples treated with O2 and subjected to various γ radiation intensities displayed superior resistance. and the memory window increased to 12.6 V at ±16 V for 100 kGy radiation intensity compared to the untreated samples. It has also been established that increasing doses of white x-rays induced a greater number of deep defects. The optimization of stacking layers along with post-deposition treatment condition can play significant role in extending the memory window.
We demonstrate the utilization of ion gel gate dielectrics for operating non-volatile transistor memory devices based on polymer semiconductor thin films. The gating process in typical electrolyte-gated polymer transistors occurs upon the penetration and escape of ionic components into the active channel layer, which dopes and dedopes the polymer film, respectively. Therefore, by controlling doping and dedoping processes, electrical current signals through the polymer film can be memorized and erased over a period of time, which constitutes the transistor-type memory devices. It was found that increasing the thickness of polymer films can enhance the memory performance of device including (i) the current signal ratio between its memorized state and erased state and (ii) the retention time of the signal.