Ionizing radiation effects on floating gates

Floating gate (FG) memories, and in particular Flash, are the dominant among modern nonvolatile memory technologies. Their performance under ionizing radiation was traditionally studied for the use in space, but has become of general interest in recent years. We are showing results on the charge loss from programmed FG arrays after 10 keV x-rays exposure. Exposure to ionizing radiation results in progressive discharge of the FG. More advanced devices, featuring smaller FG, are less sensitive to ionizing radiation that older ones. The reason is identified in the photoemission of electrons from FG, since at high doses it dominates over charge loss deriving from electron/hole pairs generation in the oxides. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.