Quick address detection of anomalous memory cells in a flash memory test structure

Author

Himeno, Toshihiko ; Hazama, Hiroaki ; Yaegashi, Toshitake ; Sakui, Koji ; Kanda, Kazushige ; Itoh, Yasuo ; Miyamoto, Jun-ichi

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Eng. Lab., Toshiba Corp., Yokohama, Japan

Volume

10

Issue

2

fYear

1997

fDate

5/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

196

Lastpage

200

Abstract

A novel scheme for quick address detection of anomalous memory cells having the highest and lowest threshold voltages in a flash memory test structure is described. A test structure with a large memory cell array has been developed to evaluate reliability of flash memory cells before fabrication of a new generation of flash memory devices. In this test structure, each terminal branch of a tree-structured column selector is connected to each bitline of the array. And a simple threshold voltage distribution monitor circuit (VTDM) which we have already proposed is connected to the other end of the bitlines. A proposed Multi-Address Scanning Scheme (MASS) is performed by the tree-structured column selector with monitoring the output of VTDM. The detection time has been reduced to 1.12% in the case of 2048 columns. This novel scheme is suitable for performing reliability tests, such as program/erase endurance test and data retention test

Keywords

EPROM; integrated circuit reliability; integrated circuit testing; integrated memory circuits; address detection; anomalous memory cell; array; bitline; data retention test; flash memory test structure; multi-address scanning scheme; program/erase endurance test; reliability test; threshold voltage distribution monitor circuit; tree-structured column selector; Canning; Circuit testing; Fabrication; Flash memory; Flash memory cells; Monitoring; Particle measurements; Performance evaluation; Threshold voltage; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Semiconductor Manufacturing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0894-6507

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/66.572068

Filename

572068