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:
Aug. 07, 2007
Filed:
Apr. 06, 2006
Bohumil Lojek, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Bohumil Lojek, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A present invention is a method, and resulting device, for fabricating memory cells with an extremely small area and reduced standby current. The small area is accomplished by a judicious use of spacers which allows a tunnel window of a storage device to be fabricated in close proximity to an associated select gate and with a reduced gate width compared to typical devices. The tunnel window is recessed within an upper surface of a substrate. The tunnel window recess is made possible by selective etching of the substrate and oxides covering the substrate. A substantial reduction in the size of a tunnel window means device scaling is possible far beyond what is attainable with standard photolithography. Standby current is reduced significantly by fabricating a select device with complementary material types for the gate compared with the adjacent source/drain regions.