Endurance and Retention Characteristics of SONOS EEPROMs Operated using BTBT Induced Hot Hole Erase

Endurance and retention of SONOS EEPROMs operated using channel hot electron injection (CHEI) and band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) induced hot hole injection (HHI) are studied. Cycling window closure is improved by optimizing erase bias, and its effect on cell degradation is studied. The retention loss in program state is studied under different erase conditions and correlated to cell degradation caused by HHI.