Fabrication and characteristics of scaled SONOSFET nonvolatile memory devices for full-featured EEPROMs

Scaled SONOSFET nonvolatile memory devices were designed and fabricated using the n-well CMOS process technology with 1.5 μm design rule in order to investigate the characteristics of scale-down devices. The ONO gate insulator of fabricated SONOSFETs were formed with a 18 Å tunneling oxide, 38 Å nitride and 37 Å blocking oxide. Memory window of 1.9 V was obtained with write pulse of +7 V, 2 sec and erase pulse of -7 V, 2 sec, and 1 V with ±7 V, 50 msec. Data retention after programming was achieved over 10 years