Mechanism of charge induced plasma damage to EPROM cells during fabrication of integrated circuits

Plasma damage mechanisms can be very complex, especially when manufacturing non-volatile memories such as EPROM and flash memories. Plasma damage at via etch can manifest itself as a charge retention failure in the memory cell during product testing. This paper investigates the interaction of UV radiation, classical plasma charging due to non-uniform plasma, and standard integrated circuit fabrication procedures in order to propose an apparent charge loss failure mechanism for non-volatile memories.