Patent ID: 8207036

Claim:
A method for forming non-volatile storage, the method comprising: forming a layer of gate oxide above a substrate; forming a layer of polysilicon floating gate material over the gate oxide; forming nitride over at least a portion of the polysilicon floating gate material; forming a plurality of floating gates from the polysilicon floating gate material, the forming a plurality of floating gates includes performing a first etch of the polysilicon floating gate material to form pillars, the first etch defines the width of a lower portion of each floating gate; forming individual dielectric caps from the nitride, each individual nitride dielectric cap is self-aligned with one of the plurality of floating gates, forming the floating gates and forming the individual dielectric caps includes etching the pillars and the nitride to form an upper portion of each floating gate, a first of the individual dielectric caps is self-aligned with a first of the upper portions of a first of the floating gates as a result of etching the pillars; forming an inter-gate dielectric layer over the dielectric caps and the sides of the floating gates; and forming control gates over the dielectric caps, the inter-gate dielectric layer separates the control gates from the floating gates.