Cryogenic Investigation of Vertical Charge Loss in 3D NAND Flash Memories

We present a detailed investigation of vertical charge loss in 3D NAND Flash memories down to the deep cryogenic regime. The extremely wide temperature range explored allows to derive clear experimental evidence for some important aspects of the vertical charge loss phenomenology, such as the activation energy of the physical processes involved in it, their relative weight and their possible dependence on the temperature of the Program operation. Results are of utmost importance to improve the understanding of data retention in 3D NAND Flash memories and to develop Quantitative predictive models for it.