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:
Sep. 25, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 24, 1999
Chung H. Lam, Williston, VT (US);
Dale W. Martin, Hyde Park, VT (US);
Christa R. Willets, Jericho, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method of forming a charge injection region on a floating gate of a memory cell using an etching process. The present invention defines the sharp corners for electron charge injection region of a floating gate by etching the shape into the floating gate silicon rather than forming the injection point using an oxidation process. By using the etching process of the present invention, limitations on the size of the floating gate are overcome and the memory cell can be formed using the minimum geometry allowed by lithography. This allows further scaling of the cell film thickness than is presently capable and does not limit the choice of insulator film materials.