Abstract
The authors describe a technology for scaling down the flash E2PROM cell, which has a conventional self-aligned double poly-Si stacked structure. It is clarified experimentally that a flash memory cell written and erased by Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling has ten times the retention time of the conventional cell, which is written by channel-hot-electron (CHE) injection and erased by F-N tunneling. This difference of data retentivity between these two write/erase (W/E) technologies is due to decreasing the thin gate oxide leakage current by bi-polarity F-N tunneling stress. This improvement in data retention becomes more pronounced as the gate oxide thickness decreases. Therefore, a bipolarity F-N tunneling W/E technology, which enables a flash E2PROM cell to scale down its oxide thickness, shows promise as a key technology for realizing 16 Mb flash E2PROMs and beyond.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 111-114 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Technical Digest - International Electron Devices Meeting |
| Publication status | Published - 1990 Dec 1 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 1990 International Electron Devices Meeting - San Francisco, CA, USA Duration: 1990 Dec 9 → 1990 Dec 12 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Materials Chemistry