Patent ID: 7998810

Claim:
A method of forming a nonvolatile memory device, comprising: forming a preliminary stacked gate structure on a semiconductor substrate, said preliminary stacked gate structure comprising a tunnel dielectric layer, a floating gate electrode on the tunnel dielectric layer, an intergate dielectric layer on the floating gate electrode and a sacrificial hard mask layer on the intergate dielectric layer; forming an interlayer dielectric layer on opposing sidewalls of the preliminary stacked gate structure; then removing the sacrificial hard mask layer to define a recess in the preliminary stacked gate structure that exposes sidewalls of the interlayer dielectric layer; then forming a silicon layer in the recess and directly on the intergate dielectric layer and exposed sidewalls of the interlayer dielectric layer, to thereby define a stacked gate structure comprising the tunnel dielectric layer, the floating gate electrode, the intergate dielectric layer and the silicon layer.