Using Charge Accumulation to Improve the Radiation Tolerance of Multi-Gb NAND Flash Memories

Abstract

Consecutive write operations on 42-nm and 60-nm single-level cell (SLC) Samsung NAND flash memories are shown to significantly improve both the total ionizing dose response and the single event upset tolerance of the memory. By writing these SLC flash memories multiple times, more charge is placed on the floating gate. This accumulated charge leads to a larger amount of radiation needed to corrupt the data. The work presented in this paper illustrates a path forward to the development of a multi-gigabit rad-hard non-volatile memory.