An empirical model describing the MLC retention of charge trap flash memories

In this publication a formula is developed to describe the program level dependent charge loss of charge trapping memory cells. We demonstrate that the retention loss can be calculated using 5 parameters with an excellent agreement to the measured results. The increasing non-linearity of the retention loss for thicker nitride layers is evaluated using this model. In addition, the strong temperature dependency of the TANOS stack is clarified.