The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 03, 1999
Ming-Bing Chang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A Flash EEPROM cell employing a sidewall polysilicon spacer as an erase gate. The cell is programmed by source side channel hot electron injection and erased by poly-to-poly tunneling through a poly tunnel oxide between the floating gate and the erase gate. The floating gate is defined by the control gate sidewall spacer which is formed before the floating gate poly self-aligned etch step. The polysilicon sidewall spacer erase gate is formed after growing a poly tunnel oxide on the sidewall of the floating gate poly. Since the poly tunnel oxide thickness is minimized, a fast programming with a low power consumption can be achieved. By using poly-to-poly tunneling erase scheme, a deep source junction is not used and cell size can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, a large sector of cells can be erased simultaneously without a power consumption concern and further V,scaling becomes possible.