A new memory cell arrangement for a gigabit-scale NAND DRAM is proposed. Although the conventional NAND DRAM in which memory cells are connected in series realizes the small die size, it faces a crucial array noise problem in the 1 gigabit generation and beyond because of its inherent noise of the open bitline arrangement. By introducing the new cell arrangement to a NAND DRAM, the folded bitline scheme is realized, resulting in good noise immunity. The basic operation of the proposed folded bitline scheme was successfully verified using the 64 kbit test chip. The die size of the proposed NAND DRAM with the folded bitline scheme (F-NAND DRAM) at the 1 Gbit generation is reduced to 63% of that of the conventional 1 Gbit DRAM with the folded bitline scheme, assuming the bitlines and the wordlines are fabricated with the same pitch. The new 4/4 bitline grouping scheme in which cell data are read out to four neighboring bitlines is also introduced to reduce the bitline-to-bitline coupling noise to half of that of the conventional folded bitline scheme. The array noise of the proposed F-NAND DRAM with the 4/4 bitline grouping scheme at 1 Gbit generation is reduced to 10% of the read-out signal, while that of the conventional NAND DRAM with open bitline scheme is 29%, and that of the conventional DRAM with the folded bitline scheme is 22%.

A new, simple test circuit for measuring the threshold voltage distribution of flash EEPROM cell transistors is described. This circuit makes it possible to perform a reliability test for a large number of memory cell transistors with easy static operation because it reduces the measuring time drastically. In addition, this circuit can measure the highest and lowest thresh-old voltages of memory cell transistors easily. This method is suitable for performing the reliability test, such as program/erase endurance test and data retention test, for a large number of flash memory cell transistors. The usefulness of this new test circuit has been confirmed by applying it to 64 Kbit NAND-type flash memory cell array.

An experimental 3 V-only 4 Mb NAND Flash memory with 65 ns access time has been developed using a new charge pump circuit and novel circuit techniques such as folded bit-line architecture. By adopting a new program verify technique, programming time is reduced to 11 µs/Byte.

This paper presents the history of Flash memories and the basic concept of their functions and also reviews a variety of Flash EEPROM's so far. As Flash memories have two influential features, non-volatility and low cost per bit, they are expected to become a driving force after DRAM's to support the semiconductor industry for the next thirty years, replacing hard and floppy disks which have a large market.

This paper describes the superior performances of the NAND EEPROM. Those are 1) a very small cell area: 4.83 µm2 using 0.7 µm design rule, 2) small block size for erasing: 4 Kbyte block erasing for 4 M-bit NAND EEPROM, 3) high speed programming: 180 nsec per byte for 4 M-bit NAND EEPROM, 4) large number of erase/program endurance cycles: more than 105 cycles for 4 M-bit NAND EEPROM. These extended performances coincide with the requirement for the EEPROM to replace magnetic memories such as hard and floppy disks. Especially, it is shown that NAND EEPROM has the capability to enlarge the erase/program endurance up to 3.6108 cycles. This endurance is a result of the erase and program mechanism of the NAND EEPROM cell. Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling currents flow from the substrate to the floating gate during programming and opposite currents flow during erasing. This bi-polarity F-N tunneling erase/program operation extends the life time of the tunnel oxide which results in an improved endurance.