Charge Gain, NBTI, and Random Telegraph Noise in EEPROM Flash Memory Devices

Different charge-gain (CG) processes are reported in EEPROM nonvolatile Flash memory devices. The process originally characterized in nitride-trapping devices is reexamined. Its mechanism is reinterpreted in terms of the recovery of negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI). We show that this CG process is controlled by nonequilibrium random-telegraph-noise-like mechanism, similar to NBTI recovery in MOS devices.