Anomalous charge loss of reference cell in MLC flash memory due to process-induced mobile ion

Author

Sim, Sang-Pil ; Kwon, Wook Hyun ; Heon Kyu Lee ; Han, Jee Hoon ; Jeon, Seung Boo ; Bong Yong Lee ; Kim, Jae Hoon ; Han, Jung In ; Yoon, Byoung Moon ; Lee, Heon Kyu ; Park, Chan-Kwang ; Kim, Kinam

Author_Institution

Semicond. R&D Center, Samsung Electron. Co., LTD., Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea

fYear

2005

fDate

16-16 Sept. 2005

Firstpage

321

Lastpage

324

Abstract

This paper reports an anomalous charge loss observed from the reference cell of MLC flash memory induced by the cobalt salicide process. The reference cell is shown to exhibit unique retention behavior different from that of the normal array cell. Both the source and mechanism of the enhanced charge loss therein are investigated through various bake tests, mobile ion analysis, and structural analysis. A simple yet effective way to protect the reference cell from the process-induced mobile ions is proposed.

Keywords

flash memories; reliability; MLC flash memory; anomalous charge loss; bake tests; enhanced charge loss mechanism; mobile ion analysis; process-induced mobile ion; reference cell; retention behavior; structural analysis; Cobalt; Consumer electronics; Flash memory; Mobile communication; Moon; Protection; Research and development; Semiconductor memory; Stability; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Device Research Conference, 2005. ESSDERC 2005. Proceedings of 35th European

Conference_Location

Grenoble, France

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9203-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESSDER.2005.1546650

Filename

1546650