Abstract
Electrical characteristics with various program temperatures (T(PGM)) in three-dimensional (3-D) NAND flash memory are investigated. The cross-temperature conditions of the T(PGM) up to 120 °C and the read temperature (T(READ)) at 30 °C are used to analyze the influence of grain boundaries (GB) on the bit line current (I(BL)) and threshold voltage (V(T)). The V(T) shift in the E-P-E pattern is successfully decomposed into the charge loss (ΔV(T,CL)) component and the poly-Si GB (ΔV(T)(,GB)) component. The extracted ΔV(T)(,GB) increases at higher T(PGM) due to the reduced GB potential barrier. Additionally, the ΔV(T)(,GB) is evaluated using the Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulation, depending on the GB position (X(GB)) and the bit line voltage (V(BL)).