Optical Charge Pumping Method for Extracting the Energy Level of Interface States in a Program/Erase Cycled SONOS Flash Memory Cel and Its Program Time Dependence

Optical Charge Pumping Method for Extracting the Energy Level of Interface States in a Program/Erase Cycled SONOS Flash Memory Cel and Its Program Time Dependence

The optical charge pumping (CP) technique is proposed as a simple and fast method for extracting the energy distribution of the interface trap, Dit, of silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) flash memories. It is based on the subthreshold slope change induced by optically excited traps and interface states in SONOS memory cell transistors under sub-bandgap photonic illumination. This technique is advantageous for characterizing charge traps in nano-scale emerging devices. The technique has been applied to SONOS charge-trapping flash memories and the generation and the passivation of interface traps are investigated as a function of both the number of program/erase cycles and the program time.

The optical charge pumping (CP) technique is proposed as a simple and fast method for extracting the energy distribution of the interface trap, Dit, of silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) flash memories. It is based on the subthreshold slope change induced by optically excited traps and interface states in SONOS memory cell transistors under sub-bandgap photonic illumination. This technique is advantageous for characterizing charge traps in nano-scale emerging devices. The technique has been applied to SONOS charge-trapping flash memories and the generation and the passivation of interface traps are investigated as a function of both the number of program/erase cycles and the program time.