A Novel Hot-Electron Programming Method in a Buried Diffusion Bit-Line SONOS Memory by Utilizing Nonequilibrium Charge Transport

Author

Wang, Tahui ; Tang, Chun-Jung ; Li, C.-W. ; Lee, Chih Hsiung ; Ou, T.F. ; Chang, Yao-Wen ; Tsai, Wen-Jer ; Lu, Tao-Cheng ; Chen, K.-C. ; Lu, Chih-Yuan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu

Volume

30

Issue

2

fYear

2009

Firstpage

165

Lastpage

167

Abstract

We propose a new hot-electron programming method with a low drain-to-source voltage in a buried-diffusion (BD) bit-line SONOS memory array. In this method, channel electrons are preaccelerated in a cell preceding a program cell. For a small bit-line width, some energetic electrons will traverse an n⁺ BD region and enter a program cell with residual energy due to nonequilibrium transport. Our measurement result shows that this residual energy can significantly enhance hot-electron programming efficiency even at a V _ds of 2.5 V. The concept of this method is verified by means of a Monte Carlo analysis. Our study shows that this method is more effective as a bit-line width reduces.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; flash memories; Monte Carlo analysis; buried diffusion bit-line SONOS memory; cell preceding; flash memories; hot-electron programming method; low drain-to-source voltage; nonequilibrium charge transport utilization; program cell; residual energy; voltage 2.5 V; Low $V_{rm ds}$; SONOS; new hot-electron programming;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2008.2009773

Filename

4729643