Scaling of MONOS Nonvolatile Memory Transistors

摘要

Nonvolatile (NV) memories are a fast growing segment of the IC market. To increase circuit density it is necessary to reduce the voltage used to write and erase the NV transistors. The purpose of this abstract is to identify the issues involved with scaling Metal gate-top Oxide-silicon Nitride-tunneling Oxide-Silicon (MONOS) NV transistors (see Figure 1). A positive (negative) gate voltage injects a net negative (positive) charge into the nitride from the silicon shifting the threshold voltage. A sensing circuit is used to distinguish the two threshold states. (ERA citation 11:051679)