Relationship between AC stress and DC stress on tunnel oxides

Trap generation is hard to estimate in a flash cell due to a dynamic stress field during program and erase (P/E). With the knowledge of the time-dependence of erase stress field based on Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling, the V/sub T/ roll up during dynamic stress is evaluated by incorporating field-dependent oxide trap generation. The extracted V/sub T/ degradation slope during constant FN stress can be applied quantitatively to predict the V/sub T/ during dynamic stress.