Comparison and trends in today's dominant E 2 technologies

This paper reviews the three dominant E 2 technologies today, namely the two floating gate approaches of thin tunnel oxide and oxide of textured poly and the dual dielectric approach of MNOS. It evaluates each approach with respect to cell design, operation, manufacturability, compatibility with established process technologies and reliability. It follows with a comparison of the technologies in the areas of development entry cost, scaling and reliability. After a review of the market place, this paper concludes with a projection of the requirements of E 2 technologies to support full function, commodity E 2 memories E 2 PROM as well as low cost microcontrollers and ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits).