A novel channel-program–erase technique with substrate transient hot carrier injection for SONOS NAND flash application

A novel channel-program and erase method is presented to replace the FN tunneling operation for SONOS cells in NAND architecture for the first time [Hsu TH, Wu JY, King YC, Lue HT, Shih YH, Lai EK, et al. A novel channel-program–erase technique with substrate transient hot carrier injection for SONOS memory application. In: Tech digest 2006 European solid-state device research conference (ESSDERC); 2006. p. 222–5], [1]. The proposed operation utilizes substrate transient hot electron (STHE) injection and substrate transient hot-hole (STHH) injection for programming and erasing, respectively. Gate bias polarity serves to control whether hot electrons or hot holes are injected into the nitride storage layer. More efficient program and erase operations are achieved compared to the conventional Fowler–Nordheim (FN) tunneling method. The new technique operates at lower programming voltages and with shorter duration pulses, thus increases the programming throughput. Moreover, good program/erase disturb immunity, cycling endurance and data retention are demonstrated.