• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2017

There is a problem of long erase and program times in testing large-density memories. Also, there is a need of testing the VT voltages of EEPROM cells at each step during the reliability test. In this paper, a cell verification module is designed for a 512kb EEPROM and a CG (control gate) driver is proposed for measuring the VT voltages of a split gate EEPROM having negative erase VT voltages. In the proposed cell verification module, asymmetric isolated HV (high-voltage) NMOS devices are used to apply negative voltages of -3V to 0V in measuring erase VT voltages. Since erasing and programming can be done in units of even pages, odd pages, or a chip in the test time reduction mode, test time can be reduced to 2ms in testing the chip from 4ms in testing the even and the odd pages.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2005

Recently, a novel multi-bit nonvolatile memory based on double gate (DG) MOSFET is proposed to overcome the short channel effects and to increase the memory density. We need more complex voltage schemes for DG MOSFET devices. In view of peripheral circuits driving memory cells, one should consider various voltage sources used for several operations. It is one of the key issues to minimize the number of voltage sources. This criterion needs more caution in considering a DG nonvolatile memory cell that inevitably requires more number of events for voltage sources. Therefore figuring out the permissible range of operating bias should be preceded for reliable operation. We found that reliable operation largely depends on the depletion conditions of the silicon channel according to charge amount stored in the floating gates and the negative control gate voltages applied for read operation. We used Silvaco Atlas, a 2D numerical simulation tool as the device simulator.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.120-131
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• 2016

In this paper, a 512b MTP memory IP is designed by using MTP memory cells which are written by the FN (Fowler-Nordheim) tunneling method with only MV (medium voltage) devices of 5V which uses the back-gate bias, that is VNN (negative voltage). The used MTP cell consists of a CG (control gate) capacitor, a TG (tunnel gate) transistor, and a select transistor. To reduce the size of the MTP memory cell, just two PWs (P-wells) are used: one for the TG and the select transistors; and the other for the CG capacitor. In addition, just one DNW (deep N-well) is used for the entire 512b memory cell array. VPP and VNN generators supplying pumping voltages of ${\pm}8V$ which are insensitive to PVT variations since VPP and VNN level detectors are designed by a regulated voltage, V1V (=1V), provided by a BGR voltage generator.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.1188-1198
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• 2015

In this paper, a multi-time programmable (MTP) cell based on a $0.18{\mu}m$ bipolar-CMOS-DMOS backbone process that can be written into by using dual pumping voltages - VPP (boosted voltage) and VNN (negative voltage) - is used to design MTP memories without high voltage devices. The used MTP cell consists of a control gate (CG) capacitor, a TG_SENSE transistor, and a select transistor. To reduce the MTP cell size, the tunnel gate (TG) oxide and sense transistor are merged into a single TG_SENSE transistor; only two p-wells are used - one for the TG_SENSE and sense transistors and the other for the CG capacitor; moreover, only one deep n-well is used for the 256-bit MTP cell array. In addition, a three-stage voltage level translator, a VNN charge pump, and a VNN precharge circuit are newly proposed to secure the reliability of 5 V devices. Also, a dual memory structure, which is separated into a designer memory area of $1row{\times}64columns$ and a user memory area of $3rows{\times}64columns$, is newly proposed in this paper.