Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Norio Ohtani

Hiroaki Hazama

Kazuhito Narita

Hirohisa Iizuka

Eiji Kamiya

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having a plurality of electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory cells connected in series together includes a select gate transistor connected in series to the serial combination of memory cells. A certain one of the memory cells which is located adjacent to the select gets transistor is for use as a dummy cell. This dummy cell is not used for data storage. During data erasing, the dummy cell is applied with the same bias voltage as that for the other memory cells.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device including plural memory cells and a dummy cell coupled to an end of a memory cell

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having a plurality of electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory cells connected in series together includes a select gate transistor connected in series to the serial combination of memory cells. A certain one of the memory cells which is located adjacent to the select gets transistor is for use as a dummy cell. This dummy cell is not used for data storage. During data erasing, the dummy cell is applied with the same bias voltage as that for the other memory cell.

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming on a semiconductor substrate a gate electrode with a gate insulating film being interposed between the substrate and the electrode, forming an insulating film for element isolation protruding from a surface of the semiconductor substrate, forming an oxide film on the surface of the semiconductor substrate with the gate electrode and the element isolation insulating film having been formed, removing the oxide film in a region in which a self-aligned contact hole is to be formed while using a resist pattern for removing the oxide film formed in a region in which the self-aligned contact hole is formed, and etching a part of the element isolation insulating film protruding from the surface of the semiconductor substrate so that said part is substantially on a level with the surface of the semiconductor substrate, while using the resist pattern for removing the oxide film formed in the region in which the self-aligned contact hole is formed.

Method of fabricating semiconductor device

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a resist pattern so that an opening between select gates of a select gate transistor is formed in a memory cell region, implanting threshold-adjusting ions under the select gate with the resist pattern serving as a mask and removing an oxide film, forming a nitride film and an interlayer insulation film after the resist pattern has been removed, forming a resist pattern used to form a contact hole between the select gates and a contact hole for a transistor to be formed in the peripheral circuit region, the transistor having a higher breakdown voltage than a memory cell transistor and etching the interlayer insulation film, the nitride film and the gate insulation film individually with the resist pattern serving as a mask.

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having a plurality of electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory cells connected in series together is disclosed. A select gate transistor is connected in series to the serial combination of memory cells. A certain one of the memory cells which is located adjacent to the select gate transistor is for use as a dummy cell. This dummy cell is not used for data storage. During data erasing, the dummy cell is applied with the same bias voltage as that for the other memory cells.

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Yokkaichi, Japan

Norio Ohtani