Program charge effect on random telegraph noise behavior in multi-level floating gate flash memory

Program charge effect on random telegraph noise (RTN) behavior in multi-level floating gate (FG) memory is investigated. RTN can be observed in inversion region and accumulation region for low and high threshold voltage (V_th) states, respectively. As V_th increases, capture time τ_c decreases and emission time τ_e increases. The RTN is induced by deeper and higher energy level traps as V_th increases. A physical model is proposed to interpret the phenomena based on change of “trap detection window”.