A 0.26-$\mu\hbox{m}^{2}$ U-Shaped Nitride-Based Programming Cell on Pure 90-nm CMOS Technology

Abstract

A novel one time programming (OTP) cell with a nitride-based storage has been developed for advanced programmable logic applications. This cell that is processed by pure logic process and decoupled with transistor gate oxide has a highly stable and extremely wide on/ off window. It exhibits a superior disturb immunity in program and read operations. In addition, a very small cell size (0.263 mum2 ) has been achieved using 90-nm pure CMOS logic process and is scalable in more advanced CMOS logic technologies by eliminating the constraint of transistor gate-oxide thickness. The all new OTP cell has a wide ON/OFF window and a superior writing efficiency by source-side injection programming mechanism. This novel OTP cell is a very promising programmable logic solution, with a fully CMOS-logic-compatible process below the 90-nm node.