Monte Carlo simulation of substrate enhanced electron injection in split-gate memory cells

Abstract

In this paper, we use fullband Monte Carlo simulations and gate current measurements to investigate charge injection in split-gate memory cells under negative substrate bias. It is shown that, in the source-side-injection (SSI) regime, the enhancement of the programming efficiency due to the substrate bias is low, unless very low drain and floating-gate biases are considered. In particular, the enhancement of the efficiency is largely reduced if the drain current is kept constant when comparing different substrate biases. Furthermore, it is observed that the carrier injection profile under negative substrate bias is broader than in the SSI regime, and a substantial amount of charge is injected in the spacer region.