Granted Patent B2

US 8,461,640 · App. 12/555,756 · Granted Jun 11, 2013

Abstract

Claims (34)

1. A non-volatile memory cell comprising:

a substrate layer;

a fin shaped semiconductor member of a first conductivity type on said substrate layer having a first region of a second conductivity type and a second region of the second conductivity type, spaced apart from the first region with a channel region extending between the first region and the second region; said fin shaped member having a top surface and two side surfaces between the first region and the second region;

a word line adjacent to the first region and capacitively coupled to a first portion of the channel region;

a floating gate adjacent to the word line and capacitively coupled to a second portion of the channel region;

a coupling gate capacitively coupled to the floating gate;

an erase gate insulated from the second region and adjacent to the floating gate and coupling gate; and

wherein the floating gate has two sections with each section positioned adjacent to one of the side surfaces of the fin shaped member and is capacitively coupled thereto.

2. The non-volatile memory cell of claims 1 wherein said word line is capacitively coupled to the two side surfaces of the first portion of the fin shaped semiconductor member.

3. The non-volatile memory cell of claim 1 wherein said coupling gate is between the word line and the erase gate, and is insulated therefrom.

4. The non-volatile memory cell of claim 1 wherein the coupling gate is insulated from the top surface of the fin shaped member and is capacitively coupled to the two sections of the floating gate capacitively coupled to the two side surfaces of the fin shaped member.

5. A non-volatile memory device comprising:

a substrate layer;

a fin shaped semiconductor member of a first conductivity type on said layer having a first region of a second conductivity type and a second region of the second conductivity type spaced apart from the first region, with a third region of the second conductivity type located substantially midpoint between the first and second regions; said fin shaped member having a top surface and two side surfaces and extending longitudinally between the first region and the second region;

a pair of word lines, adjacent to the first region and the second regions respectively, and between the first region and the third region, and between the second region and the third region, respectively, and capacitively coupled to the fin shaped member;

a pair of floating gates, each adjacent to one of the word lines and between the one word line and the third region, and capacitively coupled to the fin shaped member;

a pair of coupling gates each capacitively coupled to a floating gate;

an erase gate insulated from the third region; and

wherein each floating gate has two sections with each section positioned adiacent to one of the side surfaces of the fin shaped member and is capacitively coupled thereto.

6. The non-volatile memory device of claim 5 wherein each of said pair of coupling gates is positioned between a word line and the erase gate and insulated therefrom.

7. The non-volatile memory device of claim 5 wherein each word line is capacitively coupled to the two side surfaces of the fin shaped member.

8. The non-volatile memory device of claim 5 wherein each of said pair of coupling gates is capacitively coupled to each of the sections of the floating gate capacitively coupled to the side surface of the fin shaped member.

9. The non-volatile memory device of claim 5 wherein the erase gate is capacitively coupled to the top surface of the third region portion of the fin shaped semiconductor member.

10. An array of non-volatile memory cells comprising:

a substrate layer;

a plurality of fin shaped semiconductor members of a first conductivity type on said substrate layer, each of said fin shaped semiconductor member is spaced from one another and is substantially parallel to one another, with each having a first region of a second conductivity type and a second region of the second conductivity type, spaced apart from the first region with a channel region extending between the first region and the second region in a first direction; said fin shaped member having a top surface and two side surfaces between the first region and the second region;

a word line adjacent to the first region and capacitively coupled to a first portion of the channel region of each fin shaped member, and extending in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction across a plurality of fin shaped members;

a floating gate adjacent to the word line capacitively coupled to a second portion of the channel region in each fin shaped member;

a coupling gate capacitively coupled to the floating gate; and extending in the second direction across a plurality of fin shaped members;

an erase gate insulated from the second region and adjacent to the floating gate and coupling gate, and extending in the second direction across a plurality of fin shaped members;

wherein the second region of each of the fin shaped member is connected to the second region of other fin shaped members in the second direction; and

wherein said substrate layer is an insulator.

11. The array of claim 10 wherein the coupling gate is positioned adjacent to the word line and to the erase gate in each of the fin shaped members.

12. The array of claim 10 wherein each fin shaped member has a plurality of spaced apart first regions, with a bit line connecting to the plurality of first regions.

Assignments (15)