A novel 2-bit/cell nitride storage flash memory with greater than 1M P/E-cycle endurance

Author

Shih, Yen-Hao ; Lue, Hang-Ting ; Hsieh, Kuang-Yeu ; Liu, Rich ; Lu, Chih-Yuan

Author_Institution

Emerging Central Lab., Macronix Int. Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2004

fDate

13-15 Dec. 2004

Firstpage

881

Lastpage

884

Abstract

A novel 2-bit/cell nitride storage flash memory is proposed. It uses conventional CHE (channel hot electron) programming, BTBT HH (band-to-band tunneling hot hole) erase, and a unique negative FN (Fowler-Nordheim) reset, executed on p⁺-gate devices. Periodic -FN resets can restore V_t operation window by removing hard-to-erase electrons trapped in the channel center and neutralizing holes trapped in ONO regions above the junctions. We report, for the first time, the achieving of 10M P/E-cycle endurance in nitride storage flash memory. Excellent data retention capability is observed. This new flash memory uses no new high voltage device other than those already used for I/O and for normal programming and erase, and is completely compatible with normal fabrication processes.

Keywords

flash memories; integrated memory circuits; tunnelling; ONO regions; P/E-cycle endurance; band-to-band tunneling hot hole; channel hot electron; hard-to-erase electrons; negative Fowler-Nordheim reset; nitride storage flash memory; normal erase; normal fabrication processes; normal programming; p⁺-gate devices; Annealing; Channel hot electron injection; Charge carrier processes; Degradation; Electron traps; Fabrication; Flash memory; Hot carriers; Tunneling; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 2004. IEDM Technical Digest. IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8684-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.2004.1419321

Filename

1419321