Technology of a new n-channel one-transistor EAROM cell called SIMOS

The structure and technology of a new nonvolatile charge-storage device are described. The stacked-gate injection MOS (SIMOS) device is an n-channel MOS transistor with a control gate stacked on the floating gate. In the programming mode, electrons are accelerated by the channel drift field to energies high enough to overcome the barrier height of the Si-SiO2interface and so injected into the floating gate. On account of the channel-injection mechanism performed in the programming mode, channel lengths of less than 4 µm are required. A combination of this condition with the stacked-gate concept is achieved by a self-aligned technique which defines both polysilicon gates by a single photolithographic procedure. By means of the self-aligned technique, both the one-transistor EPROM cell and the one-transistor EAROM cell can be realized. Basic structures of the two different type one-transistor memory cells are the SIMOS transistor and the SIMOS tetrode, respectively. The technology of these two different SIMOS devices is described in detail and experimental results concerning charge accumulation, charge removal, and charge retention are reported.