Method to fabricate sharp tip of poly in split gate flash

Abstract

A method is provided for forming a split-gate flash memory cell having a sharp poly tip which substantially improves the erase speed of the cell. The poly tip is formed without the need for conventional oxidation of the polysilicon floating gate. Instead, the polysilicon layer is etched using a high pressure recipe thereby forming a recess with a sloped profile into the polysilicon layer. The recess is filled with a top-oxide, which in turn serves as a hard mask in etching those portions of the polysilicon year not protected by the top-oxide layer. The edge of the polysilicon layer formed by the sloping walls of the recess forms the sharp poly tip of this invention. The sharp tip does not experience the damage caused by conventional poly oxidation processes and, therefore, provides enhanced erase speed for the split-gate flash memory cell. The invention is also directed to a semiconductor device fabricated by the disclosed method.