Patent ID: 8110866

Claim:
A non-volatile memory device comprising: a plurality of gate stacks disposed on a semiconductor substrate and laterally spaced at a predetermined interval, wherein a portion of the semiconductor substrate is disposed in a space between adjacent ones of the plurality of gate stacks and no gate stack structures are disposed on the portion of the semiconductor device, wherein each gate stack comprises a tunneling layer disposed on the semiconductor substrate, a charge trapping layer disposed on the tunneling layer, a blocking layer disposed on the charge trapping layer, and a control gate disposed on the blocking layer; source/drain junctions disposed in the semiconductor substrate between adjacent ones of the plurality of gate stacks, wherein the source/drain junctions each comprising a first edge portion that overlaps an edge of the one of the plurality of gate stacks and a second edge portion on a side opposite the first edge portion, wherein the second edge portion does not overlap the one of the plurality of gate stacks or an adjacent one of the plurality of gate stacks to be apart from the opposite edge of the gate stacks and the second edge portion overlaps the portion of the semiconductor substrate in which no gate stack structures are disposed; and a channel formed between the source/drain junctions.