Effect of the gap size on the SSI efficiency of split-gate memory cells

Author

Palestri, Pierpaolo ; Akil, Nader ; Stefanutti, Walter ; Slotboom, Michiel ; Selmi, Luca

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr., Univ. of Udine, Italy

Volume

53

Issue

3

fYear

2006

fDate

3/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

488

Lastpage

493

Abstract

In this paper, new experimental results on the injection efficiency of split-gate memory cells programmed in the source-side-injection mode are reported. It is shown that the gap size has a negligible effect on the cell injection efficiency and, when the read current is not a limiting factor, it can be made large in order to increase the breakdown voltage of the oxide in the gap region, thus enhancing the cell reliability without detrimental effects on the performance. The experimental data is interpreted with the aid of fullband Monte Carlo simulations.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; flash memories; memory architecture; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device reliability; EEPROM; Monte Carlo simulations; breakdown voltage; cell reliability; gap size effect; semiconductor device modeling; source-side-injection efficiency; split-gate memory cells; Character generation; Electrons; Helium; Low voltage; Monte Carlo methods; Nonvolatile memory; Semiconductor device modeling; Split gate flash memory cells; Threshold voltage; Tunneling; EEPROM; Monte Carlo (MC) method; semiconductor device modeling; source-side-injection (SSI);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2005.864382

Filename

1597525