A synaptic transistor with a stacked layer of SiNx and SiO2 deposited from hexamethyldisiloxane/O2

Abstract

Herein, we employed inductively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using a hexamethyldisiloxane/O2 precursor to deposit SiO2 with electrical double layer capacitance on SiNx forming SiO2/SiNx stacked films as a dielectric layer, achieving high-performance synaptic transistors. The effect of O2 concentration during SiO2 deposition on the transistor performance was investigated. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy confirm that increasing O2 concentration during deposition boosts the amounts of protons moving between the bridging oxygen in the Si–O–Si network, improving the electrical double layer capacitance of SiO2. Furthermore, SiNx in the stacked structure exhibits a higher relative permittivity than SiO2, resulting in a more concentrated electric field within the SiO2 layer, facilitating proton ionization. SiO2/SiNx stacked film with SiO2 deposited at the oxygen flow rate of 150  sccm exhibited the maximum capacitance of 2.87 μF/cm2 at 4 Hz. The transistor with SiO2 deposited at the oxygen flow rate of 150  sccm achieved the maximum paired pulse facilitation index of 132.9% and the maximum A50/A1 index of 155.4%. This work demonstrates that SiO2 deposited via inductively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using a hexamethyldisiloxane/O2 precursor for application potential in artificial neuromorphic computing.