Apparatus and method of measuring reliability for flash memory material through a current measurement
AssigneeSK hynic Inc.
InventorsNam Cheol Jeon, Hea Jong Yang, Tae Un Youn
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Abstract
A reliability measuring apparatus includes an oxide-nitride-oxide-alumina (ONOA) current measuring circuit configured to measure an ONOA current by applying an ONOA current measuring voltage to a selected word line coupled to a selected memory cell in a flash memory and a reliability indicator generator configured to a reliability indicator using the ONOA current measured through the measuring circuit.
Claims15
A flash memory material reliability measuring apparatus using current measurement comprising:
- an oxide-nitride-oxide-alumina (ONOA) current measuring circuit configured to measure an ONOA current by applying a ONOA current measuring voltage to a selected word line coupled to a selected memory cell in a flash memory;
- and
- a reliability indicator generator configured to generate a reliability indicator using the ONOA current measured through the ONOA current measuring circuit,
- wherein the reliability indicator generated in the reliability indicator generator includes at least one of an endurance indicator, a retention indicator, a disturbance indicator, an interference indicator, and a tunnel oxide (TOX) nitrogen gradient indicator of the flash memory.
A method of measuring reliability of a material of a flash memory using a flash memory material reliability measuring apparatus, which includes an Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Alumina (ONOA) current measuring circuit, a reliability indicator generator, and a material managing circuit, the method comprising:
- the ONOA current measuring circuit measuring an ONOA current via a tunnel insulating layer through Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling by applying an ONOA current measuring voltage to a selected word line coupled to a selected memory cell of the flash memory;
- and
- the reliability indicator generator generating a reliability indicator using the ONOA current measured in the ONOA current measuring circuit,
- wherein the reliability indicator generated in the reliability indicator generator includes at least one of an endurance indicator, a retention indicator, a disturbance indicator, an interference indicator, and a tunnel oxide (TOX) nitrogen gradient indicator of the flash memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.