1T Capacitor-Less DRAM Cell Based On
1T Capacitor-Less DRAM Cell Based On
1T Capacitor-Less DRAM Cell Based On
This work was partly supported by the European STEEPER project under Grant Agreement No. 257267.
ABSTRACT In this work we propose and demonstrate the use of a Tunnel FET (TFET) as capacitorless
DRAM cell based on TCAD simulations and experiments. We report more experimental results on
Tunnel FETs implemented as a double-gate (DG) fully-depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) devices.
The Tunnel FET based DRAM cell has an asymmetric body and a partial overlap of the top gate (LG1 )
with a total overlap of the back gate over the channel region (LG2 ). A potential well is created by biasing
the back gate (VG2 ) in accumulation while the front gate (VG1 ) is in inversion. Holes from the p+
source are injected by the forward-biased source/channel junction and stored in the electrically induced
potential well. Programming conditions and related transients are reported and the role of temperature is
investigated.
II. BACKGROUND
In this paper, we further build upon [16] that showed
that all-Si double-gate (DG) Tunnel FET can serve
for building a new class of devices: the capacitor-
less Tunnel FET DRAM, where the very low IOFF is
offering low refresh rate and the zero-capacitor struc-
ture very high potential for scalability. We report a
detailed simulation study and some experimental results
on capacitorless Tunnel FET DRAM cell implemented as FIGURE 2. (a) SEM image of a fabricated FD-SOI Tunnel FET showing the
a double-gate fully-depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) top gate partially covering the channel. (b) Independent gate FinFET device
structure for TFET based capacitorless DRAM.
device. The device has an asymmetric design, with
a partial overlap of the top gate (LG1 ) and with a
total overlap of the back gate over the channel region
(LG2 = LG1 +LIN ), which creates the necessary condition to Fig. 2(a) [13]. It is known that for efficient Tunnel FET
store holes injected from the source-to-body junction in operation a fully depleted body is required. However for
an electrically induced potential well near the drain. The charge storage in the body partial depletion is preferable. In
potential well is created by biasing the back gate (VG2 ) order to meet both conditions a step like fin is used, which
in accumulation while the front gate (VG1 ) is in depletion manages the trade-off between the electrostatic control of the
and/or inversion. Gate1 and the ability to store charges by Gate2. Simulations
In Fig. 1 we see a comparison between the potential pro- showed that 50-60nm fin widths for the partially depleted
files at the surface of the channel for a DG-MOSFET and part were optimum. Gate1 partially covers the channel region
DG-Tunnel FET. The green line shows that, for the DG- and will be used as the main control gate for Tunnel FET
MOSFET a potential well already exists which can hold the operation. Gate2 on the other hand covers the entire chan-
charges. The challenge in this case as discussed earlier is to nel region and as explained below will be used to induce a
generate the excess carriers. Whereas in case of a DG-Tunnel potential well in the channel region. This potential well will
FET as shown by the red curve, there is no potential well then be used to store charges for memory operation.
by default due to the two different doping in the source and
drain region. However, we do have a reservoir of both types A. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
of carriers in source/drain region which can easily brought to To understand the principle of operation let us take a 2D cut
the body area by forward biasing the source/channel junc- of the device shown in Fig. 2 along XY plane. Simulations
tions. The challenge in case of a Tunnel FET is thus to were done in Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD [17]. The devices
create and maintain a potential well which could hold these simulated were with fin width of 25nm in the source side
extra charges. In the following section we will discuss about and 50nm in the drain side, fin height = 65nm; Gate1
how we can design a structure which would facilitate the length (LG1 ) = 80nm; Gate2 length (LG2 ) = 200nm and
formation of a potential well and still work as conventional a pocket length LIN = 120nm, unless otherwise specified.
Tunnel FET. A source/drain doping of 1x1020 cm3 of Boron/Arsenic was
used. The channel was intrinsically doped. 3nm of SiO2 gate
III. FIN-TUNNEL FET AS 1T/0C DRAM oxide was used for both Gate1 and Gate2. The same metal
For this study the Tunnel FET architecture used is shown in work-function was used for both the gates. Fig. 3(a) shows
Fig. 2(b). It is basically an independent gate Fin-Tunnel the 2D hole-density plot with VG1 = 2V, VG2 = 1V,
FET implementation of the FD-SOI devices shown in VD = 0V, VS = 0V. The memory operation is based on the
-0.08
-0.08 hDensity [cm^-3]
3.75e-14 1.83e-08 8.89e-03 4.32e+03 2.10e+09 1.02e+15 4.98e+20
-0.06
-0.06
-0.04
-0.04
Y
Y
-0.02
-0.02
GATE1
00
SOURCE DRAIN
0.02
0.02
0.04
0.04
GATE2
00 0.1
0.1 0.2
0.2 X 0.3
0.3 0.4
0.4 0.5
0.5
X [m]
(a)
(a)
(b)
(b)
creation of an induced potential well achieved by biasing FIGURE 4. (a) Simulated transfer curves at various Gate2 bias.
(b) Simulated hysteresis curves observed with varying LIN with same
Gate2 with a negative potential. A small positive bias on biasing conditions. Devices with longer LIN shows stronger hysteresis.
the source can help to flood the body with excess holes. VG1 = 2 V, VD = 1 V.
These excess holes are then trapped in the potential well
close to Gate2 as shown in Fig. 3 (top). Fig. 3(b) shows length scaling. There will be a minimum LIN required for
the cross-section at 1nm above the Gate2. We can clearly the memory cell to work satisfactorily.
see the build-up of holes in the hole-density plot. The figure The dependence of charge storage on LIN is also observed
also shows an induced potential well where the holes can be in measurements from the devices described in [16]. The
stored. Hence, as the device turns on, the presence or absence relaxation time is observed to be more prominent for devices
of the excess carriers will affect the threshold voltage of the with longer LIN. Fig. 5(a) shows that depending on the length
device indicating two different memory states. of the intrinsic region (LIN ) the discharge time varies. The
The simulated transfer curves of the device in Fig. 1 is device with longer LIN = 500nm has a slower discharge
shown in Fig. 4(a). This is similar to what has been measured than the device with LIN = 200nm. This means that longer
in [16] for FD-SOI devices. The principle of charge storage the LIN , the more charge it stores and hence it takes longer
can be further verified by the hysteresis curves showed in to discharge. This experiment also demonstrates the impor-
Fig. 4(b). With VG1 = 2V and VD = 1V, as the back gate tance of charge storage in the un-gated region. The discharge
bias is swept back and forth the charge storage in the par- time can be related to the retention time of a conventional
tially depleted region results in two different current paths. capacitorless DRAM, as it indicates how long the device
When the VG2 goes from 1V to 2V in the first sweep, can hold the charge once the write cycle is complete. In
holes start to accumulate in the induced potential well in this context we observe a discharge time in the order of few
the body affecting the body potential, resulting in the lower milliseconds for devices with longer LIN . The same prin-
branch on current in the plot. As VG2 increases to +2V, the ciple can also be observed with steady state measurements
accumulated holes are evacuated to the drain at this state. in Fig. 5(b) and (c). The device with a longer LIN clearly
Now, as VG2 goes back to 1.5V in the following sweep, shows a stronger history effect. This observation validates
the drain current follows the top branch due to the lack of the simulation results shown in Fig. 4.
the excess charges in the body. Based on this observation,
we can set the design a programming scheme of a mem- B. PROPOSED PROGRAMMING SCHEME
ory cell with read potential at Gate2 at 1.5V. A fast sweep The proposed programming scheme for the device in
rate of 1mV/sec was used in this transient simulation for Fig. 3(a) is shown in Table 1.
convergence issues. (i) WRITE 1: The write 1 step involves biasing the
It is also interesting to note that the hysteresis is stronger source with a small positive voltage, together with a negative
for devices with longer LIN . This is expected as length of the bias on Gate2. This would push holes into the body which
partially depleted region greatly influences the charge storage will then be trapped in the induced potential well caused by
as also explained in [16]. So in this particular structure, the Gate2 as shown in Fig. 3(b). Bias values used in simulation,
memory cell will loose its retention characteristics with gate VG1 = 0V, VG2 = 1V, VS = 0.25V, VD = 0V.
(a)
(b) (c)
FIGURE 6. Simulated 2-D hole densities after a (a) WRITE 1 and
FIGURE 5. (a) Different relaxation times in the millisecond range are (b) WRITE 0 operation. (c) Simulated potential profile at 1 nm below Gate1
recorded when the back gate is biased at VG2 = 10 V (after writing 1), showing the hole pocket.
depending on the length of the LIN region. The TFET with LIN = 500 nm
shows the longer discharge time while it is negligible in devices with
LIN = 200 nm. (b) & (c) Measured drain current with respect to back gate
voltage at fixed front gate and drain voltages, VG1 = 4.5 V, VD = 4 V.
and WRITE 0 operations. The results are given in Fig. 6.
A clear difference is present showing that more holes are
(ii) WRITE 0/ERASE: The write 0 step would simply stored under the front gate after WRITE 1 compared to
mean putting a positive bias to the Gate2 (~2V). This will after WRITE 0 state. The same principle is also observed
remove any induced potential well from the previous state in the potential profiles at 1nm below the Gate1. After a
and the holes in the body diffuse back to the source or recom- WRITE 1 operation, there is a hole pocket present in the
bine to drain. Bias values used in simulation, VG1 = 0V, channel region. Similarly after a WRITE 0 operation, the
VG2 = 2V, VS = 0.25V, VD = 0V. hole pocket is much smaller. This hole pocket will primar-
(iii) HOLD: After the write 1 or 0 step the source goes ily act as a resistance to current flow. Now as the device
back to zero and a small positive bias on Gate2 holds on is turned on, the presence or absence of this excess carriers
to excess charges (if any) in the body. Bias values used in will affect drive current of the device indicating two different
simulation, VG1 = 0V, VG2 = 1.0V, VS = 0V, VD = 0V. memory states.
(iv) READ: The readout operation is carried out via Tunnel
FET operation with BTBT from p+ source to the intrinsic IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
channel. For this, the drain is biased at VDD and VG1 > A. TRANSIENT MEASUREMENTS
threshold voltage (VTH ) of the device. Source remains at Transient measurements were carried out FD-SOI Tunnel
zero bias for the read operation. Gate1 controls the read out FET devices [13] with 20 nm Silicon layer thickness and
current. The threshold voltage of the device is affected by 145 nm of BOX, according to the programming scheme is
the presence or absence of excess carriers in the body. Bias depicted in Table 2. This scheme is different from what was
values used in simulation, VG1 = 2V, VG2 = 1.5V, VS = 0V, reported in [16] in order to better understand the principle
VD = 1V. of operation. The timing diagrams of READ and WRITE
Transient simulations were done to observe the hole den- operations are shown in Fig. 7. The Gate1, Gate2 and drain
sity in the body in HOLD mode preceded by WRITE 1 were pulsed according to Fig. 7(a) below. The Agilent 4156C