Abstract
After 90nm technology, some constraints like coupling noise and leakage of gate current must be overcome in embedded non-volatile memory. Many methods have been presented but no effective solutions work. A new p-channel nitride-based One Time Programmable (OTP) memory has been developed in this thesis. This new cell was fabricated by CMOS logic process without any extra mask or process step. This cell with a small cell size is composed of two PMOS transistors in series with a parasitic self-align nitride storage node that is formed by the merged spacers. In recent years, all kinds of new NVM cells have been presented especially by using nitride layer as storage node. But most of them need special and complex process which may obtain lots of cost to overcome during scaling down. This novel cell provides a promising solution for embedded NVM beyond 90nm node. The cell also exhibits low power, small cell size, excellent data retention capability, and which is fully decoupled with gate oxide for high scalability achievement. The novel structure is a p-type memory cell which can inject charges to the storage layer more efficiently. In this work, the 2-dimension simulation software (TCAD) is used to observe the fundamental principle to prove the practicability of the novel structure. Finally, we successfully realized the “Self-Aligned Nitride” OTP cell in 90nm, 65nm and even advanced 45nm technology. Comparing to traditional one-time programmable memory cells, the novel structure has ascendancy and good improvement on cost and scalability.