Program Trapped-Charge Effect on Random Telegraph-Noise Amplitude in a Planar SONOS Flash Memory Cell

Program-charge effects in a SONOS Flash cell on the amplitude of random telegraph noise (RTN) are investigated. We measure RTN in 45 planar SONOS cells and 40 floating-gate (FG) cells in erase state and program state, respectively. We find that a SONOS cell has a wide spread in RTN amplitudes after programming, while an FG cell has identical RTN amplitudes in erase and program states at the same read-current level. A 3-D atomistic simulation is performed to calculate RTN amplitudes. Our result shows that the wide spread of program-state RTN amplitudes in a SONOS cell is attributed to a current-path-percolation effect caused by random discrete nitride charges.