1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method for forming a non-volatile memory cell. More particularly, it relates to a method for forming a vertical nitride read-only memory (NROM) cell to increase performance thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The non-volatile memory industry began development of nitride read-only memory (NROM) in 1996. This relatively new non-volatile memory technology utilizes oxide-nitrideoxide (ONO) gate dielectric and known mechanisms of programming and erasing to create two separate bits per cell. Thus, the NROM bit size is half of the cell area. Since silicon die size is the main element in the cost structure, it is apparent that NROM technology is an economic breakthrough.
FIG. 1 is a cross-section showing a conventional NROM cell structure. This cell includes a silicon substrate 100 which has two separated bit lines (source and drain) 102, two bit line oxides 104 formed over each of the bit lines 102, respectively, and an ONO layer 112 having a silicon nitride layer 108 sandwiched between the bottom silicon oxide layer 106 and the top silicon oxide layer 110 formed on the substrate 100 between the bit line oxides 102. A gate conductive layer 114 (word line) lies on the top of the bit line oxides 104 and the ONO layer 112.
The silicon nitride layer 108 in the ONO structure 112 has two chargeable areas 107 and 109 adjacent to the bit lines 102. These areas 107 and 109 are used for storing charges during memory cell programming. To program the left bit close to area 107, left bit line 102 is the drain and receives the high programming voltage. At the same time, right bit line 102 is the source and is grounded. The opposite is true for programming area 109. Moreover, each bit is read in a direction opposite its programming direction. To read the left bit, stored in area 107, left bit line 102 is the source and right bit line 102 is the drain. The opposite is true for reading the right bit, stored in area 109. In addition, the bits are erased in the same direction that they are programmed.
Increasing cell density for integration of ICs requires reducing the bit line area or shrinking the width of the ONO layer. Unfortunately, reducing bit line area may increase the resistance of the bit line, and result in lower operation speed of the memory cell. In addition, shrinking the gate length may induce cell disturbance during programming, erasing, or reading, in particular, when the width of the gate length is less than 10 nm. Therefore, the cell density is limited.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for forming a vertical nitride read-only memory (NROM) cell, which uses the sidewall of the substrate trench as a channel of the NROM cell, reducing the resistance of bit lines. Moreover, a vertical channel is formed instead of the conventional planar one, thereby preventing the cell disturbance during programming, erasing, and reading.
According to the object of the invention, the invention provides a method for forming a vertical NROM cell. First, a substrate having at least one trench is provided and then a masking layer is formed over the sidewall of the trench. Next, ion implantation is performed on the substrate to respectively form doping areas in the substrate near its surface and the bottom of the substrate trench to serve as bit lines. Next, bit line oxides are formed over each of the doping areas and an oxide layer is formed overlying the mask layer by thermal oxidation. Finally, a conductive layer is formed overlying the bit line oxides and fills in the trench to serve as a word line.
The bit lines can be formed by phosphorus ion implantation. Moreover, the masking layer comprises an oxide layer and an overlying nitride layer. The word line can be polysilicon.