METHOD OF OPERATING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT EMBEDDED WITH NON-VOLATILE PROGRAMMABLE MEMORY HAVING VARIABLE COUPLING RELATED APPLICATION DATA
First Claim
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1. A method of operating a one-time programmable (OTP) device situated on a substrate comprising:
- providing a floating gate;
wherein said floating gate is comprised of a material that is also shared by an interconnect and/or another gate for a transistor device also situated on the substrate and associated with a logic gate and/or a volatile memory;
providing a source region; and
providing a drain region overlapping a variable portion of said floating gate and capacitively coupled thereto;
wherein an amount of capacitive coupling can be adjusted based on one of altering a number of N (N>
1) separate drain regions selected to overlap said floating gate and/or a variable programming voltage;
setting a threshold of said floating gate by selecting said variable programming voltage and/or which of said N separate drain regions provide a current of channel hot electrons.
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Abstract
A programmable non-volatile device is operated with a floating gate that functions as a FET gate that overlaps a portion of a source/drain region and allows for variable coupling through geometry and/or biasing conditions. This allows a programming voltage for the device to be imparted to the floating gate through variable capacitive coupling, thus changing the state of the device. Multi-state embodiments are also possible. The invention can be used in environments such as data encryption, reference trimming, manufacturing ID, security ID, and many other applications.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method of operating a one-time programmable (OTP) device situated on a substrate comprising:
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providing a floating gate; wherein said floating gate is comprised of a material that is also shared by an interconnect and/or another gate for a transistor device also situated on the substrate and associated with a logic gate and/or a volatile memory; providing a source region; and providing a drain region overlapping a variable portion of said floating gate and capacitively coupled thereto; wherein an amount of capacitive coupling can be adjusted based on one of altering a number of N (N>
1) separate drain regions selected to overlap said floating gate and/or a variable programming voltage;setting a threshold of said floating gate by selecting said variable programming voltage and/or which of said N separate drain regions provide a current of channel hot electrons. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of operating a non-volatile programmable (NVP) device situated on a substrate comprising:
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providing a floating gate, which floating gate is comprised of a layer and material that is shared by gates of at least some other non-NVP devices on said substrate; programming the NVP device to a first state with channel hot electrons that alter a voltage threshold of a floating gate; wherein said channel hot electrons are provided by one of a variable number of drain regions and/or a variable program voltage which can be coupled to said floating gate; reading the first state in the OTP device using a bias current to detect said voltage threshold; and erasing the NVP device with band-band tunneling hot hole injection.
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9. A method of operating a programmable non-volatile device comprising:
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providing a floating gate; wherein said floating gate is comprised of a material that is also used as a gate for a transistor device also situated on the substrate and associated with a logic gate and/or a volatile memory; providing a source region; and providing a drain region including at least a first drain region and a second separate drain region; and capacitively coupling a variable portion of said gate to said drain based on selectively coupling either or both of said first drain region and said second separate drain region; providing a programming voltage to said drain region, wherein a substantial portion of said programming voltage is also imparted to said floating gate through said capacitive coupling and in an amount corresponding to said selective coupling.
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10. A method of operating a multi-level programmable non-volatile device comprising:
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providing a floating gate; wherein said floating gate is comprised of a material that is also used as a gate for a transistor device also situated on the substrate and associated with a logic gate and/or a volatile memory; providing a source region; and providing a drain region including at least a first drain region and a second separate drain region; and capacitively coupling a variable portion of said gate to said drain based on selectively coupling either or both of said first drain region and said second separate drain region; providing a variable programming voltage to said drain region, wherein a substantial portion of said variable programming voltage is also imparted to said floating gate through said capacitive coupling and in an amount corresponding to said selective coupling; wherein said floating gate is adapted to store multiple levels of charge corresponding to said variable programming voltage.
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Specification