Electrostatics and its effect on spatial distribution of tunnel current in metal Nanocrystal flash memories

Abstract

In this paper we present an analytic formulation of the electrostatics of metal based Nanocrystal (NC) flash memory, and study its effect on tunnelling probabilities. We establish that asymmetry in field distribution resulting from the electrostatics enhances the field near the NC. A spatial distributiion of tunnelling probabilities is presented for the first time. This analytical formulation can be easily coupled with the Schrodinger's equation to describe the Program/Erase dynamics of the NC,greatly reducing the computational time.