Modular architecture for a family of multilevel 256/192/128/64 Mbit 2-bit/cell 3 V-only NOR flash memory devices

This paper presents a family of 2 b/cell devices fabricated in 0.15 μm STI CMOS technology NOR-type flash memory. The device organization is based on a modular architecture that allows a very fast generation of all devices of the family from 64 Mbit to 256 Mbit having very similar performance. The modular architecture mainly concerns read path and high Voltage management aspects. A very realistic chip emulation of all devices is possible by using the 256 Mbit parent chip. The 256 Mbit device has 90 mm² die size and it is composed of 256 1-Mbit sectors with hierarchical row and column decoding. Asynchronous access time with error correction is 120 ns for the 256 Mbit. Burst mode read at 50 and 66 MHz is also available