Method and system for improving the radiation tolerance of floating gate memories

摘要

A method of improving radiation tolerance of floating gate memories is provided herein. Floating gate memories can include a floating gate transistor or a block of floating gate transistors. A floating gate transistor can include a semiconductor region, a source region, a drain region, a floating gate region, a tunnel oxide region, an oxide-nitride-oxide region, and a control gate region. A floating gate transistor or block of floating gate transistors can be written to multiple times in order to accumulate charge on one or more floating gate regions in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. When exposed to radiation, a floating gate region can retain its charge above a certain voltage threshold. A block of floating gate transistors can communicate with an external device where the external device can read a state of the block of floating gate transistors in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

主权项

1. A method of improving radiation tolerance of a block of floating gate transistors comprising:
providing a block of floating gate transistors, each floating gate transistor within said block of floating gate transistors comprising:
a semiconductor substrate region;a source region and a drain region separated by said semiconductor substrate region; anda floating gate region,wherein said floating gate region is dielectrically separated from said source region, said drain region, and said semiconductor substrate region by a first dielectric insulator region,wherein said floating gate region is dielectrically separated from a control gate region by a second dielectric insulator region; writing to said block of floating gate transistors a plurality of times, each of said writing to said floating gate transistor operations comprising:
applying a bias in at least one of said semiconductor substrate regions of said block of floating gate transistors that induces a tunneling effect, said tunneling effect causing an amount of charge to gather on associated floating gate regions; and determining a radiation-resistant state of said block of floating gate transistors comprising:
predetermining a radiation threshold for said block of floating gate transistors based on a desired environment;irradiating said block of floating gate transistors at said predetermined radiation threshold; anddetermining if data on said block of floating gate transistors is below a predetermined data corruption threshold,wherein if said data on said block of floating gate transistors is below a predetermined data corruption threshold, then said radiation-resistant state has been achieved,wherein if said data on said block of floating gate transistors is above a predetermined data corruption threshold, then said radiation-resistant state has not been achieved.