Device Characterisation of a High Density Half-Micron Cmos Process

Woerlee, P.H.; Juffermans, Casper A. H.; Lifka, H.; Walker, Andrew; Poorter, T.; Merks-Eppingbroek, H.J.H.; Lansink, F.M. Oude

doi:10.1051/jphyscol:1988405

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The introduction of retrograde wells where the doping density increases with depth was pivotal in the development of high-density CMOS [54], [55]. Such wells have fascinating effects on charge motion within the silicon due to inherent electric fields.…”

Section: Electron Injection Diffusion and Driftmentioning

confidence: 99%

On DRAM Rowhammer and the Physics of Insecurity

Walker¹,

Lee

Beery³

2021

IEEE Trans. Electron Devices

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The dynamic random access memory (DRAM) disturb known as rowhammer (RH) has come to dominate the insecurity of computing systems worldwide. Several studies have concentrated on electron injection from a switching cell select transistor and capture by nearby storage node junctions as being the main mechanism for the effect. This article for the first time looks in-depth at RH from the point of view of both electron injection and capture, and capacitive crosstalk. The absence of such comprehensive studies at the silicon level in the literature can be attributed to its sensitive nature within the industry and highlights the difficulty of DRAM scaling. This review article, therefore, forms a broad foundation to extend understanding of this dangerous disturb mechanism and in so doing provides an informed view on the ability of future DRAM technologies to solve RH once and for all. Index Terms-Crosstalk, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), electron injection, rowhammer (RH). I. INTRODUCTION T HE story of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is that of the semiconductor industry itself [1], [2]. Fifty years of scaling a field-effect transistor and a capacitor has resulted in DRAM as the "main memory" in all compute systems from cloud servers through laptops to mobile phones. This success makes such systems prone to any security weakness that may lurk within DRAM itself. The DRAM disturb known as rowhammer (RH) has been causing increasing concern since its public unmasking in [3]. It is characterized by corrupted data in cells close to a row that is turned on and off many times between data refresh. Although the actual problem seems to have been known since 2010, and most probably before that within DRAM Research and Development, with some patent applications in 2012, RH was propelled to the forefront of hardware security issues when it was used to gain computer kernel privileges [4]. After ten years from the first inkling of a problem, the RH disturb varies widely between Manuscript

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Section: Electron Injection Diffusion and Driftmentioning

confidence: 99%