ABSTRACT
Floating gate nonvolatile memory or FG-NVM evolved out of metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology and followed the development and integration schemes adopted by the general FET technology. The FAMOS chip is the first 2048 bit nonvolatile memories (NVMs) product providing a field-programmable feature, and it replaced read-only memory (ROM) chips for applications such as code and look-up table updates and was also employed for character generation. Aside from the conventional nitride-based SONOS type of CT NVM devices, another charge-trapping (CT) device types emerged in the early 1980s out of the developments of silicon-rich oxides (SROs) and silicon-rich nitrides (SRNs). During 1995, other IBM researchers revived the interest in nanocrystal-based NVM devices attracting world-wide attention. Although no nanocrystal-based stand-alone flash NVM product has yet been available, considerable understanding of such devices exist as well as future product potential. This section will cover an extended introduction of the historical development and future potentials for such devices.
