To achieve a higher operating speed, higher reliability, and lower power consumption
by reducing the thickness of an inter-poly silicon insulator film between a floating
gate and a control gate of a flash memory, a silicon dioxide film, a silicon nitride
film, tantalum pentoxide, and a silicon dioxide film are formed in a multilayer
structure to serve as the inter-poly insulator film between a floating gate and
a control gate. With this configuration, tantalum pentoxide formed on the silicon
nitride film has a dielectric constant of 50 or more, which is higher than that
of the silicon dioxide film, and the thickness of the inter-poly silicon insulator
film can be reduced.