Fundamental reliability issues of advanced charge-trapping Flash memory devices

The basic reliability issues of Charge Trapping (CT) Flash memory devices will be discussed from a physical perspective, highlighting the reliability implications of process and technology innovations introduced to sustain the uninterrupted device scaling down. We will focus on the reliability issues related to the charge localization inside the trapping layer and the high-κ band-gap engineered stacks introduced to implement both tunnel and blocking dielectrics. We will describe the physical mechanisms responsible of reliability degradation (data retention, array disturbs, endurance), discussing briefly the issues related to ultra-scaled and vertically stacked 3D Flash memory devices.