SONOS MEMORY DEVICE WITH ENHANCED INFORMATION ERASING SPEED AND METHOD OF ERASING INFORMATION THEREOF

摘要

PURPOSE: An SONOS(Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon) memory device and a method of erasing information thereof are provided to erase quickly information from the device by injecting hot holes into a nitride layer instead of using a conventional FN(Fowler-Nordheim) current. CONSTITUTION: A first electrode(12) and a second electrode(13) contact at least one bit line. A gate electrode(17) contacts a word line. A predetermined electric field is applied between the first and second electrodes and the gate electrode, so that hot holes are injected into a nitride layer(15) through an energy barrier of a tunnel oxide layer(14). At this time, a bit of information is erased from an SONOS memory device. The same positive voltage is applied to the first and second electrodes and a negative voltage is applied to the gate electrode.