Title :
Observations of single electron trapping/detrapping events in tunnel oxide of SuperFlash™ memory cell
Author :
Tkachev, Yuri ; Liu, Xian ; Kotov, Alexander ; Markov, Viktor ; Levi, Amitay
Author_Institution :
Silicon Storage Technol. Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Abstract :
Erase instabilities and erase performance degradation due to single-electron trapping events in tunnel oxide of SST split-gate SuperFlash™ memory cells have been detected and analyzed for the first time. Whereas the instabilities of erase characteristics in stacked-gate flash memories ("erratic erase") are attributed to hole trapping/detrapping associated with anode hole injection, SuperFlash™ cell does not show any hole-related processes in tunnel oxide. A different behavior of SuperFlash™ cell compared to conventional stacked-gate cell during erase operation due to different cell structures has been analyzed.
Keywords :
electron traps; flash memories; hot carriers; tunnelling; EPROM; SST split-gate SuperFlash™ memory cells; charge carrier process; charge injection; conventional stacked-gate cell; erase instability; erase performance degradation; hole-related process; hot carriers; single electron detrapping; single electron trapping; tunnel oxide; tunneling; Anodes; Channel hot electron injection; Degradation; Electron traps; Flash memory; Flash memory cells; Kinetic theory; Nonvolatile memory; Split gate flash memory cells; Tunneling;
Conference_Titel :
Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium, 2004
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8726-0
DOI :
10.1109/NVMT.2004.1380803