Accurate and Efficient Physical Simulation of Program Disturb in Scaled NAND Flash Memories

Program disturb may ultimately limit the scalability of modern NAND flash memory technologies and is typically most serious for the memory cells neighboring the string select transistors. The feasibility, accuracy, and predictive capability of a new advanced physical simulation model for the program disturb in NAND flash memories is demonstrated by means of a comprehensive experimental verification based on a 48 nm TANOS technology. For the first time it is demonstrated that the dependence of program disturb on the distance between the memory cells and the select transistors can be accurately modeled by a physical model without fitting any model parameter.