Patent ID: 8753955

Claim:
A method of fabricating a nonvolatile memory device, the method comprising: forming a dielectric material on a substrate; and forming a charge storage material on the dielectric material; patterning the charge storage material, the dielectric material, and the substrate to form trenches in the substrate defining device isolation regions therein and active regions therebetween, and to define a charge storage pattern and a dielectric layer on the active regions between the trenches, wherein the trenches and the active regions therebetween extend into first and second device regions of the substrate; forming a sacrificial layer in the trenches between the active regions in the first device region; forming an insulating layer substantially filling the trenches between the active regions in the second device region; and selectively removing at least a portion of the sacrificial layer in the trenches in the first device region to define gap regions extending along the trenches between the active regions in the first device region while maintaining the insulating layer substantially filling the trenches between the active regions in the second device region, wherein sidewalls of the charge storage pattern and the dielectric layer are exposed by the sacrificial layer in the trenches in the first device region prior to selective removing the sacrificial layer to define the gap regions.