In this article, the authors developed a silicon-oxide-high-kappa-oxide-silicon (SOHOS) memory structure using a high-kappa Y2O3 nanocrystal film as the charge-trapping layer for flash memory applications. From x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic and atomic-force microscopy analyses, they found that the Y2O3 nanocrystal layer formed after O-2 and N2O annealing. When using the channel hot-electron injection for charging and the band-to-band hot hole for discharging, the high-kappa Y2O3 SOHOS memory devices prepared under the N2O gas annealing exhibited large threshold-voltage shifting (memory window of similar to 3 V), superior endurance characteristics (program/erase cycles of up to 10(5)), and excellent data retention (charge loss of similar to 7.5% measured time up to 10(4) s and at room temperature). These results indicate the higher probability of charge-carrier trapping in the Y2O3 film.