Patent ID: 7160775

Claim:
A method for discharging a semiconductor device comprising: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a hole blocking dielectric layer over the semiconductor substrate, wherein forming the hole blocking dielectric layer comprises forming the hole blocking dielectric layer having a thickness greater than approximately 50 Angstroms; forming nanoclusters over the hole blocking dielectric layer; forming a charge trapping layer over the nanoclusters; and applying an electric field to discharge the semiconductor device, wherein applying the electric field further comprises: applying the electric field to the nanoclusters to create an electron-hole pair, wherein the electron-hole pair comprises a first electron and a first hole; tunneling the first electron from one of the nanoclusters through the hole blocking dielectric layer into the semiconductor substrate; and driving the first hole from one of the nanoclusters into the charge trapping layer, wherein the charge trapping layer comprises a second electron and the first hole combines with the second electron.