Germanium Twin-Transistor Nonvolatile Memory With FinFET Structure

Abstract

Germanium is a promising alternative material for use in advanced technology nodes because it exhibits symmetrical mobility of holes and electrons. Embedded nonvolatile memory (NVM) is essential in electronic devices with integrated circuit (IC) technology, including future Ge-based technology. In this paper, we demonstrate Ge twin-transistor NVM with a fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) structure. This Ge twin-transistor NVM exhibits high programming and erasing speeds and satisfactory reliability. Moreover, the masks and fabrication process of this Ge twin-transistor NVM are identical to those of Ge-channel FinFETs. Thus, Ge twin-transistor NVM is a promising candidate for embedded NVM applications in future high-performance Ge complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology (CMOS).

Keywords

• Germanium
• non-volatile memory
• FinFET
• embedded memory