Abstract
bedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM) are growing fast, and single poly floating gate eNVM is the mainstream in the market. However, single poly floating gate eNVM has faced the challenge that the coupling ratio of the floating gate is too small, result in the difficulties in cell operation. This study proposes a new N-channel contact coupling gate multi-time programmable non-volatile memory cell. By adding multiple coupling contacts, the coupling ratio of the floating gate can be improved without additional process step and extra masking. The new N-channel contact coupling gate multi-time programmable non-volatile memory cell is single poly and stores charge in floating gate by channel hot electron injection, and erases by Fowler-Nordherim tunneling. The program time is within 50□s, erase time is within 150ms, endurance is up to 10K and the cell has been verified to pass the criteria after 1000 hours of retention bake at 125oC. The contact coupling’s characterization needs neither another coupling well served as an erase gate nor a select transistor in array operation. Therefore, an ultra small cell size has been demonstrated and suitable for high density application. The new cell has good operation performance, high reliability, and ultra small cell size, so it will be a promising new solution for eNVM applications.