1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to non-volatile memory devices, and more particularly, to nitride-based NAND memories.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrically programmable and erasable non-volatile memory technologies based on charge storage structures known as Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) and flash memory are used in a variety of modern applications. A flash memory is designed with an array of memory cells that can be independently programmed and read. Sense amplifiers in a flash memory are used to determine the data value or values stored in a non-volatile memory. In a typical sensing scheme, an electrical current through the memory cell being sensed is compared to a reference current by a current sense amplifier.
A number of memory cell structures are used for EEPROM and flash memory. As the dimensions of integrated circuits shrink, greater interest is arising for memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers, because of the scalability and simplicity of the manufacturing processes. Memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers include structures known by various industry names such as (Poly)Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS), and PHINES, for example. These memory cell structures store data by trapping charge in a charge trapping dielectric layer, such as silicon nitride. As negative charge is trapped, the threshold voltage of the memory cell increases. The threshold voltage of the memory cell is reduced by removing negative charge from the charge trapping layer.
Another nitride device uses a relatively thick bottom oxide, e.g. greater than 3 nanometers, and typically about 5 to 9 nanometers, to prevent charge loss. Instead of direct tunneling, band-to-band tunneling induced hot hole injection (BTBTHH) can be used to erase the cell. However, the hot hole injection causes oxide damage, leading to charge loss in the high threshold cell and charge gain in the low threshold cell. Moreover, the erase time must be increased gradually during program and erase cycling due to the hard-to-erase accumulation of charge in the charge trapping structure. This accumulation of charge occurs because the hole injection point and electron injection point do not coincide with each other, and some electrons remain after the erase pulse. In addition, during sector erase, the erase speed for each cell is different because of process variations (such as channel length variation). This difference in erase speed results in a large Vt distribution of the erase state, where some of the cells become hard to erase and some of them are over-erased. Thus the target threshold Vt window is closed after many program and erase cycles and poor endurance is observed. This phenomenon will become more serious when the technology keeps scaling down.
A traditional floating gate device stores 1 bit of charge in a conductive floating gate. The advent of nitride memory cells in which each cell provides 2 bits of flash cells that store charge in an Oxide-Nitride-Oxide (ONO) dielectric. In a typical structure of a nitride memory cell, a nitride layer is used as a trapping material positioned between a top oxide layer and a bottom oxide layer. The ONO layer structure effectively replaces the gate dielectric in floating gate devices. The charge in the ONO dielectric with a nitride layer may be either trapped on the left side or the right side of a cell.
Floating gate devices encounter substantial scaling challenges due to inter-floating gate coupling. Nitride trapping device replace the floating gates with charge trapping material. Some nitride trapping device include: one that stores charges locally and is sensitive to hot-hole induced damages, and SONOS that uses channel program/erase and suffers from retention problems caused by direct tunneling leakage through the thin tunnel oxide.
A conventional NAND-type floating gate flash memory is suitable for many commercial applications because the memory device possesses the characteristics of high-density, low-power and fast speed programming. However, due to the inter-floating gate coupling effect, the scaling of NAND-type floating gate devices is limited. When the space parameter for the floating gate device is shrunk, a high floating gate coupling effect may cause undesirable and severe disturbance. The conventional NAND-type floating gate device also suffers from tunnel oxide scaling issues and erratic bits where a local defect, or trapped charge, in a tunnel oxide can result in the leakage of the charge in the floating gate.
To address the scaling issue in floating gate devices, charge trapping devices such as SONOS, MNOS or nano-crystal trapping devices are suggested. However, these devices all suffer serious charge retention problems. For a SONOS device, the ultra-thin tunnel oxide is unable to properly preserve a charge storage. For a MNOS device, the structure does not provide a top oxide to block the charge loss. A nano-crystal device cannot be well-controlled because of the randomly distributed nano particles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to design NAND-type floating gate flash memories that provide scalability while overcoming the retention problems as well as maintaining efficient erase.