Study of the Band-to-Band Tunneling Hot-Electron (BBHE) Programming Characteristics of p-Channel Bandgap-Engineered SONOS (BE-SONOS)

The band-to-band tunneling hot-electron (BBHE) programming characteristics of the 2 bit/cell p-channel bandgap-engineered silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor (SONOS) (H. T. Lue, et al., in IEDM Tech. Diag., p. 331) device are extensively studied. The lateral BBHE profile is extracted by fitting the experimental current-voltage (I-V) characteristics with 2-D simulation. The results suggest that, after BBHE injection, the local channel potential barrier is reduced, which, in turn, raises the Vt of the p-channel device. The 2 bit/cell operation methods and second-bit effect (2 bit interaction) are examined. The effects of channel-length scaling, junction profile, and effective oxide thickness of the gate stack are also addressed