Patent ID: 7186615

Claim:
A method to form a floating gate for a flash memory device, said method comprising: forming a dielectric layer over a substrate; removing a portion of said dielectric layer to define an area where said floating gate is to be formed; forming a floating gate dielectric layer overlying said area where said floating gate is to be formed, wherein a remaining portion of said dielectric layer serves as a control gate dielectric layer and said floating gate dielectric layer overlying said area where said floating gate is to be formed serves as a tunneling layer; forming a conductor layer overlying said floating gate dielectric layer, thereby forming said floating gate; forming a masking layer overlying said conductor layer; forming conductive spacers on the sidewalls of said conductor layer and said masking layer, and over a portion of said dielectric layer, wherein said spacers extend vertically above the top surface of said conductor layer; and removing said masking layer.