[en] This study elucidates the coupling of Schottky barriers and trapped charges involved in the source-side electrons programming and two-bit/cell reading of the Schottky barrier charge-trapping cells. Two-dimensional numerical iterations were employed to examine the distribution of electron injections and trapped charges, and to discuss the differences of physical mechanisms between the Schottky barrier and conventional cells. In the Schottky barrier cells, both the conduction and injection of electron carriers depend on the Schottky source barrier lowering. The source-side trapped charges alter the source-side lateral field distribution, reducing the maximum of the lateral electric field, and moving the subsequent injections away from the source edge. The distribution of total trapped-charges is considerably wider than that of the initial injection. However, because of source-side conduction, the excellent screening of second-bit effect is beneficial to operate the NOR-type multibit/cell charge-trapping memories. (paper)

[en] This work presents a novel Schottky barrier flash cell with promising source-side injection programming. The effects of the Schottky barrier on source-side injection programming are demonstrated by two-dimensional device simulations. The unique Schottky barrier at the source/channel interface significantly promotes the amount of source-side hot electrons to provide high injection efficiency at considerably low voltages without compromising between gate and drain biases. The new source-side injection Schottky barrier flash cell, which has a compact floating-gate structure with a metallic source/drain, is proposed for the first time as future flash memory