One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of forming a non-volatile semiconductor memory device, involving the sequential or non-sequential steps of forming a charge trapping dielectric over a substrate, the substrate having a core region and a periphery region; removing at least a portion of the charge trapping dielectric in the periphery region; forming a gate dielectric in the periphery region; forming buried bitlines in the core region; and forming gates in the core region and the periphery region.