This paper examines the characteristics and physical properties of the scaled MONOS nonvolatile memory device for low programming voltage EEPROM. The capacitor-type MONOS memory devices with the nitride thicknesses ranging from 41.angs. to 600.angs. have been fabricated. As a result, the 5V-programmable MONOS device has been obtained with a 20ms programming time by scaling the nitride thickness to 57.angs. with a tunneling oxide thickness of 19.angs. and a blocking oxide thickness of 20.angs.. Measurement results of the quasi-static C-V curves indicate, after 10$^$6/ write/erase cycles, that the devices are degraded due to the increase of the silicon-tunneling oxide interface traps. The 10-year retention is impossible for the device with a nitride less than 129.angs.. However, the MONOS memory device with 10-year retentivity has been obtained by increasing the blocking oxide thickness to 47.angs.. Also, the memory traps such as the nitride bulk trap and the blocking oxide-nitride interface trap have been investigated by measuring the maximum flatband voltage shift and analyzing through the best fitting method.