Insight of stress effect on the ONO stack layer in a SONOS-type flash memory cell

Abstract

The stress effect on the ONO stack layer in a two-bit SONOS-type memory cell is investigated. Our results show that P/E cycles induced stress will generate extra nitride, oxide, and interface traps in the ONO stack layer. Besides, these stress created traps are unstable and will be annealed by additional thermal treatment. Storage electrons escape from stress-created nitride and oxide traps and the trap annealing effects are root causes of charge loss in a SONOS cell.