The Role of Shallow Trench Isolation on Channel Width Noise Scaling for Narrow Width CMOS and Flash Cells

RTS noise is a growing issue in flash memory as the cell size scales down. By investigating NMOS and Ring devices, it is shown that noise induced by the STI edge dominates cell RTS/noise with scaling or after cycling. Device 1/f characterization highlights the drain STI edge as a critical area for RTS improvement in flash.