Interrupted PROGRAM and ERASE Operations for Characterizing Radiation Effects in Commercial NAND Flash Memories

A technique of interrupting PROGRAM and ERASE operations is used to extract information about the analog characteristics of commercial NAND Flash memory cells. The number of interrupted PROGRAM or ERASE operations required to cause a bit to change state is shown to be modified by program/erase stress, total ionizing dose, and heavy ion exposure. These modifications allow for the detection of stresses far below the thresholds for memory cell failure.