Total Ionizing Dose Effects on Read Noise of MLC 3-D NAND Memories

This article analyzes the total ionizing dose (TID) effects on noise characteristics of commercial multi-level-cell (MLC) 3-D NAND memory technology during the read operation. The chips were exposed to a Co-60 gamma-ray source for up to 100 krad(Si) of TID. We find that the number of noisy cells in the irradiated chip increases with TID. Bit-flip noise was more dominant for cells in an erased state during irradiation compared to programmed cells.