Patent ID: 7759727

Claim:
A method of shielding a floating gate tunneling element structure comprising the steps of: disposing a floating gate over a gate oxide in two active areas defined by first and second doped well regions formed in a substrate, said floating gate including a first floating gate portion over said first doped well region and a second floating gate portion over said second doped well region, wherein said first floating gate portion is substantially smaller than said second floating gate portion so as to create adequate voltage coupling to cause Fowler-Nordheim tunneling to occur to and from said first doped well region and said first floating gate portion as a function of an applied high voltage, wherein said first and second doped well regions are NWELL regions and said substrate is a P substrate; forming a first and second diffusion regions within said first NWELL region and separating said first and second diffusion regions by a first channel region; forming a third and fourth diffusion regions within said second NWELL region and separating said third and fourth diffusion regions by a second channel region; forming a field oxide region between said second and third diffusion regions; forming a PWELL region in said P substrate between said first and second NWELL regions; and forming a floating gate shield layer so as to enclose said floating gate.