Single poly eeprom without separate control gate nor erase regions

Abstract

A single-poly EEPROM memory device comprises source and drain regions in a semiconductor body, a floating gate overlying a portion of the source and drain regions, which defines a source-to-floating gate capacitance and a drain-to-floating gate capacitance, wherein the source-to-floating gate capacitance is substantially greater than the drain-to-floating gate capacitance. The source-to-floating gate capacitance is, for example, at least about three times greater than the drain-to-floating gate capacitance to enable the memory device to be electrically programmed or erased by applying a potential between a source electrode and a drain electrode without using a control gate. A current path between the source and drain electrodes generally defines current carrying portions of the source and drain regions, and a non-current carrying portion of the source region residing outside the current carrying portion, wherein substantially more of the floating gate overlies the non-current carrying portion than the current carrying portions.