Characterization of Single-Poly EEPROM in 0.18μm BCD(Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) Technology

Single-poly EEPROM is a suitable solution for IoT and automation applications as it can be embedded in the BCD process with no additional masks or process steps. Six different Single-Poly EEPROM cells (Type I-VI) are designed using a 0.18$\mu$m BCD technology in this paper. Type I-V are 3T structures with three devices in baseline BCD technology, and Type VI is a special 4T structure with an inverter as the output device. By comparing the coupling ratio, program/erase speed, and endurance of Type I-VI, we conclude that the larger cell area and smaller W/L of the coupling device increase the program and erase speed, and also lead to better endurance. The cells consisting of NMOS (Type V) or MIM capacitors (Type IV) didn’t perform as well as Type II or III in this work. Type VI with the inverter output is designed by BCD technology for the first time in this work, which also shows a good performance on speed and endurance tests.