US Patent 7615446 - Nanocrystal charge trap flash memory

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7615446.html

A variety of new non-volatile memory devices have been under development for the past several years including MRAM, phase change RAM, and RRAM. While some advantages are offered by these devices the cost required to establish a new type of non-volatile memory may be prohibitive. This patent from Samsung instead focuses on using nanocrystals to extend the operability of the existing flash memory designs. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of fabricating a charge trap flash memory device, the method comprising:

forming a tunneling dielectric layer on a semiconductor substrate;

forming an organic polymer thin film on the tunneling dielectric layer, the organic polymer thin film comprising embedded metal or metal oxide nano-crystals for trapping charges;

forming a gate layer on the organic polymer thin film; and

patterning the gate layer, the organic polymer thin film and the tunneling dielectric layer, and forming source and drain regions in the semiconductor substrate.