A new high-density low-voltage SSIMOS EEPROM cell

An efficient low-voltage EEPROM cell is described which occupies an area of 135 µm²when fabricated with 3-µm CMOS technology. To charge and discharge the floating gate, the device relies on Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of electrons between the floating gate and a narrow window of the device channel region. In addition, the control gate is positioned so as to shield the remaining portion of the floating gate from the substrate. The cell can be programmed in 10 ms with a nominal WRITE voltage of 16 V and an ERASE voltage of 12 V. The WRITE/ERASE endurance of the cell is in excess of 10⁶cycles, and the data retention has been shown to be greater than 10 years at 125°C.