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:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 30, 2002
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A memory device with homogeneous oxynitride tunneling dielectric. Specifically, the present invention describes a flash memory cell that includes a tunnel oxide dielectric layer including homogeneous oxynitride. The tunnel oxide dielectric layer separates a floating gate from a channel region that is formed between a source region and a drain region in a substrate. The flash memory cell further includes a dielectric layer that separates a control gate from the floating gate. In one case, the homogenous oxynitride is a defect free silicon nitride. The homogeneity of the oxynitride is due to the uniform distribution of nitride within the tunnel oxide dielectric layer. Further, the use of the homogeneous oxynitride can increase the dielectric constant and lower the barrier height of the tunnel oxide dielectric layer for increased performance. Also, the homogenous oxynitride supports source-side channel hot hole erasing in the flash memory cell.