Reliability study of thin inter-poly dielectrics for non-volatile memory application

The key factors which dominate the leakage current in poly-oxide are reviewed, and intrinsic limitations in thinner poly-oxide to device application are investigated. The ON (oxide-nitride-oxide) structure that overcomes poly-oxide thinning limitations is described. This stacked film exhibits superior electric field strength due to the inherent electron trapping-assisted self-limiting process. UV erase characteristics for EPROM cells with the ONO structure are considered. The scaling-down of the ONO interpoly dielectric, taking into consideration memory cell charge retention capability, is discussed.<>