摘要:
This invention relates to a method of adjusting the erase/program voltage in semiconductor non-volatile memories. The memories are formed of at least one matrix of memory cells having a floating gate, a control gate, and drain and source terminals, and are organized by the byte in rows (WL) and columns (BL), each byte comprising a group of cells having respective control gates connected in parallel with one another to a common control line (CG) through a selection element of the byte switch type, and each cell being connected to a respective control column (BL) through a selection element of the bit switch type. Advantageously, a double adjustment is provided for the program voltage of the memory cells, whereby the program voltage during the erasing phase can be higher in modulo than the program voltage during the writing phase. This is achieved by providing respective adjusters (4,5) connected between a generator (7) of a program voltage (Vpp) and the cell matrix, or alternatively forming the bit switch element (20) inside a well (13) and the byte switch element (21) directly in the substrate.
摘要:
Array of electrically programmable non-volatile memory cells, each cell comprising a floating gate (9;90), a control gate (12;120) coupled to a row (WL) of the array, a first electrode (7,13;70;130) associated with a column (BL1-BL8) of the array and a second electrode (6;70) separated from the first electrode by a channel region underlying said floating gate, the first electrode, the second electrode and the channel region being formed in a layer of semiconductor material (5) of a first conductivity type and having a second conductivity type, comprising at least one ROM memory cell (2;200) which is identical to the electrically programmable non-volatile memory cells and is associated with a respective row and a respective column of the array, the ROM cell (2;200) comprising means for allowing or not allowing the electrical separation between said respective column and the second electrode (6';61) of the ROM cell (2;200), if the ROM cell must store a first logic state or, respectively, a second logic state.
摘要:
Process for manufacturing a semiconductor memory device comprising the formation, in a same semiconductor material chip, of at least a first memory cell (18) comprising a MOS transistor (19) with a first gate electrode (21) and a second gate electrode (23) superimposed and respectively formed by definition in a first (12) and a second layer (17) of conductive material, and of at least a second memory cell (1) shielded by a layer (32) of shielding material for preventing the information stored in the second memory cell (1) from being accessible from the outside, said second memory cell (1) comprising a MOS transistor (2) with a floating gate electrode (4) formed simultaneously with the first gate electrode (21) of the first cell (18) by definition of said first layer of conductive material (12). Said layer of shielding material (32) is formed by definition of said second layer of conductive material (17).
摘要:
A memory device (100;400) is proposed. The memory device includes a plurality of memory cells (Mc), means (115-145) for comparing a set of selected memory cells with at least one reference cell (Mr 0 -Mr 2 ;Mr) having a predefined threshold voltage, the means for comparing including means (115,120) for applying a biasing voltage having a substantially monotone time pattern to the selected memory cells and to the at least one reference cell, means (130) for detecting the reaching of a comparison current by a cell current of each selected memory cell and by a reference current of each reference cell, and logic means (145) for determining a condition of each selected memory cell according to a temporal relation of the reaching of the comparison current by the corresponding cell current and by the at least one reference current, wherein the means for comparing further includes means (220;520 j ;320 o -320 2 ,322;620 j ,622 j ) for time shifting at least one of said detections according to at least one predefined interval to emulate the comparison with at least one further reference cell having a further threshold voltage.
摘要:
A semiconducting material substrate for use in integrated circuits manufacturing processes, where said substrate has a discoidal shape with two surfaces, i.e. a bottom surface and a top surface, respectively, and said substrate is also provided with marking indicia to indicate its crystallographic orientation. According to the present invention discoidal surfaces (2, 3; 12, 13) of said substrate (1; 11) have an axial symmetry and marking indicia (4, 5; 14) are executed at least on one of said discoidal surfaces (2, 3; 12, 13).
摘要:
The invention relates to non-volatile memory structure integrated on a semiconductor substrate and including a plurality of memory cells (1) each comprising a floating gate transistor having an active area (9) and source/drain (16, 17) regions as well as a control gate coupled to the floating gate, the floating gate transistor being serially connected to a selection transistor. According to the invention a contact (7) is provided on the control gate over the active area (9). The contact is substantially aligned to the central portion of the active area but may even be realized over double-poly wings (18, 19) of the gate region located asymmetrically with respect to the active area.