Patent · US Expired

Side wall contact in a nonvolatile electrically alterable memory cell

US5023694A · kind A · utility

6Cited by
8References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateAug 3, 1988
Grant dateJun 11, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 3, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10D64/035

Abstract

A nonvolatile integrated circuit memory cell (10) is provided which is smaller in size than conventional memory cells and uses only two layers of polysilicon with floating gate portion (50) of the memory cell formed partly from a first polysilicon layer (20) and partly from second polysilicon layer (26), contact between the two portions being made using residual polysilicon bridge or overlapping portion (34) between the two layers. The invention enables programming and erase tunneling oxides to be formed in a single step while maximizing the capacitive coupling between the floating gate (50) and the substrate (12) by forming a silicon dioxide layer (102) between the floating gate and substrate separately from formation of the programming (30) and erase (28) tunneling elements.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.