No abstract

This work reports the combined characterization at mountain altitude (on the ASTEP Platform at 2552 m) and at sealevel of more than ~50 Gbit of 90 nm NOR flash memories subjected to natural radiation (atmospheric neutrons). This wafer-level experiment evidences a limited impact of the terrestrial radiation at ground level on the memory SER evaluated without ECC. Experimental values are compared to estimations obtained from Monte Carlo simulation using the TIARA-G4 code combined with a physical model for charge loss in such floating-gate devices.

<p>We propose and develop a complete solution to evaluate very low leakage currents in Non‐Volatile Memories, based on the Floating‐Gate Technique. We intend to use very basic tools (power supply, multimeter,...) but with a very good current resolution. The aim of this work is to show the feasibility of such measurements and the ability to reach current levels lower than the ones obtained by any direct measurement, even from high‐performance devices. The key node is that the experiment is led in a very particular low‐noise environment (underground laboratory) allowing to keep the electrical contacts on the device under test as long as possible. We have demonstrated the feasibility of this approach and obtained a very promising 10^‐17A current level in less than two weeks.</p>