Micromachines (Feb 2020)

Analysis of the Sensing Margin of Silicon and Poly-Si 1T-DRAM

  • Hyeonjeong Kim,
  • Songyi Yoo,
  • In-Man Kang,
  • Seongjae Cho,
  • Wookyung Sun,
  • Hyungsoon Shin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11020228
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 2
p. 228

Abstract

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Recently, one-transistor dynamic random-access memory (1T-DRAM) cells having a polysilicon body (poly-Si 1T-DRAM) have attracted attention as candidates to replace conventional one-transistor one-capacitor dynamic random-access memory (1T-1C DRAM). Poly-Si 1T-DRAM enables the cost-effective implementation of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure and a three-dimensional (3D) stacked architecture for increasing integration density. However, studies on the transient characteristics of poly-Si 1T-DRAM are still lacking. In this paper, with TCAD simulation, we examine the differences between the memory mechanisms in poly-Si and silicon body 1T-DRAM. A silicon 1T-DRAM cell’s data state is determined by the number of holes stored in a floating body (FB), while a poly-Si 1T-DRAM cell’s state depends on the number of electrons trapped in its grain boundary (GB). This means that a poly-Si 1T-DRAM can perform memory operations by using GB as a storage region in thin body devices with a small FB area.

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