This paper demonstrates a shrinkable triple self-aligned split-gate Flash cell fabricated using a standard 0.13-mcopper interconnect process. The approach used here to create a self-aligned structure is to form a spacer against the prior layer. Due to a higher aspect ratio when the cell pitch decreases, the profile of the spacer structure becomes sharper. This improves process control of the spacer profile and length. All the processes used here are compatible with standard logic process. The word line channel length of the cell is 0.11 m. It is comparable in area with a stacked-gate cell and can be less than 13F 2 . The cell is erased by using poly-poly Fowler-Nordheim tunneling with a sharp floating-gate edge to increase the electric field, and is programmed by source-side injection. As a result, this cell is highly suitable for low power applications and embedded products. Characterization shows considerable program and erase speed, up to 300 K times cycling endurance, and excellent disturb margins.

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A new triple self-aligned (SA3) split-gate flash cell with a T-shaped source coupling approach is described in this paper. This novel structure can significantly enhance coupling capacitance between the source and floating gate without increasing cell size. The enhancement can be simply modulated by an oxide-etching step. This new structure can be applied to program voltage reduction and cell size scaling. For program voltage reduction, the maximum program voltage of the new cell can be reduced from 7.4 to 6.4 V, which is characterized by a newly developed methodology for program vs disturb window characterization. For cell size scaling, comparable sort-1 and sort-2 yields are demonstrated using the new cell with a shorter floating length and a shallower source junction. To understand the relationship between source coupling ratio (SCR) and the program/erase mechanism, an insightful discussion on the program and erase mechanisms for our split-gate flash cell is also shown in this paper.

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