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:
Apr. 16, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 25, 2000
Satoru Muramatsu, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a non-volatile semiconductor device, having a floating gate overlying a tunnel insulating film set on a silicon substrate and a control gate overlying an inter-gate insulating film set on said floating gate; which comprises the steps of: forming a silicon oxide film on the surface of the silicon substrate and subsequently applying a heat treatment thereto in atmosphere of a nitriding gas containing nitrogen oxide so as to form a nitridation region and thereby forming a tunnel insulating film; wherein in said heat treatment performed in atmosphere of the nitriding gas, so that the maximum nitrogen atomic concentration in the tunnel insulating film that is to be formed may become equal to or greater than the maximum nitrogen atomic concentration(acceptable maximum nitrogen atomic concentration) capable to provide given acceptable holding characteristics, the pressure of said nitriding gas and the temperature of heat treatment are controlled on the basis of a pre-formed relationship equation between the thickness of the tunnel insulating film and the acceptable maximum nitrogen atomic concentration, for a prescribed thickness of the tunnel insulating film that is to be formed.