First Detection of Single-Electron Charging of the Floating Gate of NAND Flash Memory Cells

Author

Monzio Compagnoni, Christian ; Paolucci, Giovanni M. ; Miccoli, Carmine ; Spinelli, Alessandro S. ; Lacaita, Andrea L. ; Visconti, Angelo ; Goda, Akira

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettron., Inf. e Bioingegneria, Politec. di Milano, Milan, Italy

Volume

36

Issue

2

fYear

2015

fDate

Feb. 2015

Firstpage

132

Lastpage

134

Abstract

This letter provides the first direct experimental detection of single-electron charging of the floating gate of a mainstream Flash memory cell. The detection is shown to be easily achievable through conventional and very simple measurement techniques on state-of-the-art technologies. Results represent a milestone for the investigation of the physics of Flash memory operation, opening the possibility for direct analyses of the piling up of single electrons in the floating gate during cell programming.

Keywords

NAND circuits; flash memories; integrated circuit measurement; NAND flash memory cells; cell programming; floating gate; simple measurement techniques; single-electron charging detection; Accuracy; Arrays; Electron devices; Flash memories; Logic gates; Noise; Programming; Flash memories; semiconductor device modeling; semiconductor device reliability; single-electron effects;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2014.2377774

Filename

6980089