Very fast EEPROM erasing study

In this paper, we present a new approach to reduce the time programming of an electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory cell (EEPROM) by using an analytical compact model. A precise investigation concerning the transient behavior of the cell variables such as the charge injected into the floating gate, the threshold voltage during the write/erase operations has been done. The complete understanding of physical mechanisms occurring into the device allows us to improve the efficiency of cell programming. The very fast duration of write/erase operations are obtained by simulation in a first step and then compared to measurement results performed on test structure. The comparisons between measurement and simulation are in good agreement and confirm the validity of this approach. We have demonstrated that it´s possible to reduce by a factor of 400 the duration of time programming to reach only 10µs. For example, this result can be used for applications with flash memories in which the fast Fowler-Nordheim erasing will be necessary.