- Research team led by Professors Moon Sup Han, Young Jun Chang, and Eun Jip Choi from the Department of Physics develops titanium-doped material

- Improves charge storage capacity and retention performance, contributing to next-generation semiconductor research

A research team from the Department of Physics at the University of Seoul, led by Professors Moon Sup Han, Young Jun Chang, and Eun Jip Choi, have developed a new low-temperature process-based material that significantly enhances the performance of core materials used in NAND flash memory semiconductors. This study is expected to make an important contribution to improving the performance of next-generation memory semiconductors and developing new materials.

NAND flash memory is widely used in large-capacity storage devices such as smartphones and computer servers, and the global market size is projected to reach approximately 97 trillion KRW by 2029. In particular, improving the performance of silicon nitride, which plays a key role in storing charges in three-dimensional NAND flash memory devices, has been considered an essential challenge. To increase the charge storage capacity compared to conventional silicon nitride, the research team developed a new titanium-doped silicon nitride. As a result, the charge storage capacity increased by approximately 60%, and the retention performance of stored charges improved by 20%. In addition, while conventional silicon nitride requires high growth temperatures, imposing process limitations, this study simplified the manufacturing process by adopting a room-temperature synthesis method, suggesting the potential for application in flexible electronic devices.

The results of this study were published on February 20 in ACS Applied Electronic Materials, a top-tier international SCI journal published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), under the title “Ti-doping in Silicon Nitride: Enhanced Charge Trap Characteristics for Flash Memory.”

This research was supported by academic research funding from the University of Seoul and by the Basic Research Program (General and Mid-career Researcher Support) of the National Research Foundation of Korea. 

▶ Hanyeol Ahn, Ph.D. candidate, and Hyun Su Park, M.S. candidate (co-first authors), Professor Moon Sup Han (corresponding author), Professor Young Jun Chang, and Eun Jip Choi (co-authors)