A Nitride-Based P-Channel Logic-Compatible One-Time-Programmable Cell With a New Contact Select Gate

Author

Tsai, Yi-Hung ; Lin, Kai-Chun ; Kuo, Cheng-Hsiung ; Chih, Yue-Der ; Lin, Chrong-Jung ; King, Ya-Chin

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electron. Eng., Nat. Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

30

Issue

10

fYear

2009

Firstpage

1090

Lastpage

1092

Abstract

This letter presents a new 2-bit/cell contact-gated one-time-programmable (OTP) device, which is demonstrated in a 90-nm CMOS logic process. The cell is programmed by electron injection and storage in the contact-etch-stop-layer (CESL) nitride film. A novel contact gate is introduced to serve as a select transistor, which allows the cell to exhibit good immunity against program and read disturbances. The 2-bit/cell operation is achieved by selectively injecting charges into the CESL on either side of the contact gate through channel-hot-electron operation. With a unit bit area of 13.8 F² , this nitride-based contact-gated OTP memory is highly feasible for advanced logic applications.

Keywords

CMOS logic circuits; CMOS memory circuits; charge injection; hot carriers; programmable logic devices; 90-nm CMOS logic process; OTP memory; cell contact-gated OTP device; channel-hot-electron operation; contact gate; contact select gate; contact-etch-stop-layer nitride film; electron injection; p-channel logic-compatible one-time-programmable cell; size 90 nm; storage; storage capacity 2 bit; 2-bit/cell; Logic-NVM; one-time programmable (OTP); p-channel;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2009.2028442

Filename

5233888