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:
Mar. 18, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 14, 1997
John P. Erdeljac, Plano, TX (US);
Louis N. Hutter, Richardson, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A tunnel diode construction for an EEPROM device , and method for making it are shown. A tank is provided at a surface of a semiconductor substrate containing a doped diffused tunnel region . A layer of insulation is provided over the surface of the substrate with a first thickness to provide a tunnel oxide over at least part of the tunnel region and a second, larger, thickness elsewhere. A conducting floating gate is provided above the doped diffused tunnel region and at least part of the tank , on the layer of insulation . The floating gate extends over the oxide beyond the lateral boundaries of the doped diffused tunnel region in every direction to terminate over the second thickness of oxide over the tank . To complete the EEPROM device , an MOS transistor having source and drain doped regions provided in the substrate , with a portion of the floating gate capacitively coupled to a control gate and extending over at least part of a channel region of the MOS device.