EEPROM programming study-time and degradation aspects

Electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) reliability is of crucial interest. In a previous study of EEPROM cells programming we have shown that it is possible to decrease the electric field across the tunnel oxide with an appropriate programming signal without any change in the device. This improves the endurance of the memory cell with the same injected charge and the same performances. Another way to decrease the degradation of the oxide is to reduce the duration of the stress induced by the electric field across the tunnel oxide. Using the previous study, we show it is possible to reduce the programming time by a factor of ten compared to a standard signal.