A Novel P-Channel Flash Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) Cell with Oxide-Nitride-Oxide (ONO) as Split Gate Channel Dielectric

A novel p-channel flash electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) cell, which is programmed/erased via channel Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling, is described in this paper. Channel FN tunneling is a high efficiency and low-power-consumption approach to flash cell operation. High endurance up to 1 M cycles was demonstrated with small window closure. The new flash cell exhibits good reliability which is quite insensitive to disturb or over program. In order to simplify the process, the interpoly dielectric and select gate dielectrics are fabricated using the same oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) stack during formation of this cell. Hence, this cell shows good potential for achieving simple processing, low power consumption and negligible disturbance during operation.