On the endurance performance of FLOTOX EEPROM cells with WSi2 overcoated floating gate electrode

Abstract Comparison between endurance performance obtained on FLOTOX EEPROM cells with heavily doped poly-Si as floating gate electrode and heavily doped poly-Si overcoated with WSi 2 is presented. The poor endurance performance which has been obtained on the memory cells with silicidated floating gate electrodes has been quantitatively attributed to fluorine contamination of the tunnel oxide layer, introduced during the LPCVD silicide deposition process step. Finally, the necessity for optimizing the post-silicidation annealing procedure is proposed.