A HIGHLY ROBUST PROCESS INTEGRATION WITH SCALED ONO INTERPOLY DIELECTRICS FOR EMBEDDED NONVOLATILE MEMORY APPLICATIONS

We have developed a process sequence for a Bash EEPROM memory embedded in an advanced microcontroller circuit. This process simultaneously f orms a thick top oxide on the interpoly ONO dielectric in the memory a rray and a stacked gate-oxide for the logic transistors. We have fabri cated one-transistor, hash bit-cells with good data retention characte ristics that incorporate a 17 nn ONO film along with high-quality stac ked gate oxides.