Determining the state of non-volatile memory cells with floating gate using scanning probe microscopy

摘要

During a failure analysis of integrated circuits, containing non-volatile memory, it is often necessary to determine its contents while Standard memory reading procedures are not applicable. This article considers how the state of NVM cells with floating gate can be determined using scanning probe microscopy. Samples preparation and measuring procedure are described with the example of Microchip microcontrollers with the EPROM memory (PIC12C508) and flash-EEPROM memory (PIC16F876A).