The variable-threshold transistor, a new electrically-alterable, nondestructive READ-only storage device

Wegener, H. A. R.; Lincoln, Abraham; Pao, H.C.; O'Connell, Maurice R.; Oleksiak, R. E.; Lawrence, H.

doi:10.1109/t-ed.1968.16265

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, proper ways of injecting, removing, and sensing the charge in the potential well are required to build a non-volatile memory. This is the basic principle of Floating Gate (FG) [1], Charge Trap (CT) [2], and Nanocrystal (nXTL) memories [3]. 0018-9499/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE A different storage concept is based on phase.…”

Section: B Storage Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Metal Nitride Oxide Silicon, MNOS [2] • Silicon Oxide Nitride Oxide Silicon, SONOS [113] • Tantalum Alumina Nitride Oxide Silicon, TANOS [114] • Nitride Read Only Memory, NROM [115] All of them use a nitride layer as the storage element, but differ in terms of gate electrode and blocking oxide materials, and also for programming mechanisms.…”

Section: B Charge Trap Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Present and Future Non-Volatile Memories for Space

Gerardin

Paccagnella

2010

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We discuss non-volatile memories (NVM) for space applications. The focus will be both on technologies and devices aimed at the mainstream commercial markets and on rad-hard devices. Commercial NVMs are very attractive for space designers due to their large size (tens of Gbits), even though they have several issues related to ionizing radiation. Rad-hard NVMs offer radiation hardness, but are available only in small size (few Mbits). Most of the emphasis in this review paper will be on the current dominant technology in the mainstream market: floating gate flash memories. A comprehensive discussion of total dose and single event effects results for a wide cross section of NVMs will be presented. Finally, we will conclude with a cursory glance at other emerging non-volatile technologies.Index Terms-Ferroelectric devices, flash memory, magnetoresistive devices, nonvolatile memory, phase change memory, radiation effects. I. OVERVIEWN ON-VOLATILE memories (NVMs) are used in a variety of space applications, as data or code memories, and are increasingly needed for future missions. This paper will discuss the technologies and devices available for non-volatile storage in the mainstream and in the rad-hard market, with a strong attention to the radiation sensitivity, which is of primary importance for harsh environments such as space.The work is organized as follows: we will first introduce the basic definitions and metrics concerning NVMs, then explore and compare the major storage concepts. In particular, charge-based, phase-change, ferroelectric, and magnetoresistive memories will be presented, with emphasis on density, performance, reliability, and radiation sensitivity. Architectural information concerning the array organization and peripheral circuitry will be given, highlighting known radiation issues and critical building blocks. A. Key Definitions and MetricsA non-volatile memory is a memory that retains information when powered off. Different terms are used to indicate the act of storing a digital value in a non-volatile memory bit, depending on the memory type and architecture. In charge-based storage, the terms program and erase are used to indicate the injection of Manuscript negative charge into and its removal from (or injection of positive charge into) the charge storage element, respectively. In the context of phase change memories, the terms set and reset are used to indicate the operations leading to the crystallization and amorphization of the phase-change material. For other memories, such as ferroelectric or magnetic, the term write is simply used, as for SRAMs and DRAMs. The association of these operations and terms with the stored digital value ("0" or "1") is arbitrary. In the following we will stick to the conventions most commonly used for each memory type.In addition to familiar parameters such as speed, power consumption, and density, two additional metrics are of main importance for non-volatile memories: retention and endurance. This is because wear-out is usually much stronger in non-volat...

show abstract

Section: B Storage Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Charge Trap Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Present and Future Non-Volatile Memories for Space

Gerardin

Paccagnella

2010

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A donor can capture carrier electrons with large lattice relaxations, forming a DX (donor (D) deactivated (X)) center, 1-5 whereas an acceptor traps holes, forming an AX (acceptor (A) deactivated (X)) center. [5][6][7] However, in amorphous semiconductors, even though many charge-trapping phenomena that can modify electronic device characteristics 8 and be applied to nonvolatile memory devices 9 have been observed, the atomic and electronic structures of the charge-trapping defects lack clear understanding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undercoordinated indium as an intrinsic electron-trap center in amorphous InGaZnO4

Nahm

Kim

2014

NPG Asia Mater

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Undercoordinated indium (In*) is found to be an intrinsic defect that acts as a strong electron trap in amorphous InGaZnO 4 . Conduction electrons couple with the under-coordinated In* via Coulomb attraction, which is the driving force for the formation of an In*-M (M = In, Ga, or Zn) bond. The new structure is stable in the electron-trapped (2-) charge state, and we designate it as an intrinsic (In*-M) 2 − center in amorphous InGaZnO 4 . The (In*-M) 2 − centers are preferentially formed in heavily n-doped samples, resulting in a doping limit. They are also formed by electrical/optical stresses, which generate excited electrons, resulting in a metastable change in their electrical properties. NPG Asia Materials (2014) 6, e143; doi:10.1038/am.2014.103; published online 14 November 2014 INTRODUCTIONThe identification of charge-trapping defects on the atomic scale has been achieved in crystalline semiconductors. A donor can capture carrier electrons with large lattice relaxations, forming a DX (donor (D) deactivated (X)) center, 1-5 whereas an acceptor traps holes, forming an AX (acceptor (A) deactivated (X)) center. [5][6][7] However, in amorphous semiconductors, even though many charge-trapping phenomena that can modify electronic device characteristics 8 and be applied to nonvolatile memory devices 9 have been observed, the atomic and electronic structures of the charge-trapping defects lack clear understanding.Amorphous oxide semiconductors seriously suffer from chargetrapping events. 10 Thin-film transistors made of amorphous oxide semiconductors exhibit a variety of metastable changes in their transistor characteristics through carrier doping and optical [11][12][13] or electrical [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] (or both [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] ) excitation of carriers. Indium (In)-based amorphous oxide semiconductors are considered as a promising material for next-generation thin-film electronics and optoelectronics because they have high electron mobility, transparency, flexibility and uniformity. [29][30][31][32][33] However, the success of these applications has been limited by the lack of stability in their electrical properties owing to charge trapping.Investigation of the charge-trapping defects on the atomic scale is an essential prerequisite to overcome the instability issue of the indiumbased amorphous oxide semiconductors. An oxygen-vacancy (V O ) defect has been suggested as a metastable hole-trap center. 34,35 Unlike in crystalline oxides, V O and M-interstitial (M i ) (M = In, Ga, or Zn) are essentially indistinguishable in amorphous oxides. An M-M bond configuration can be understood as a V O and as anSimilarly, an O-O bond configuration can be interpreted as an M-vacancy (V M ) and as an In this paper, we find that undercoordinated indium (In*) acts as an intrinsic electron-trap center in In-based amorphous oxide semiconductors. Conduction electrons are subjected to a strong conductionelectron-ion interaction near the undercoordinated In* and trapped there, forming an In*-M bond. ...

show abstract

“…MNOS memories were invented nearly 30 years ago [5] and were the first electrically-alterable nonvolatile semiconductor memory (EAROM) device. In the early 70's, -channel MNOS EAROM's were fabricated with densities of 8 Kb in a tri-gate implementation.…”

Section: Physical Electronics Of Sonos Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A low voltage SONOS nonvolatile semiconductor memory technology

White

Yang

Purwar³

et al. 1997

IEEE Trans. Comp., Packag., Manufact. Technol. A

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The triple-dielectric polysilicon-blocking oxidesilicon nitride-tunnel oxide-silicon (SONOS) structure is an attractive candidate for high density E 2 PROM's suitable for semiconductor disks and as a replacement for high-density dynamic random access memories (DRAM's). Low programming voltages (5 V) and high endurance (greater than 10 7 cycles) are possible in this multidielectric technology as the intermediate Si 3 N 4 layer is scaled to thicknesses of 50Å. The thin gate insulator and low programming voltage enable the scaling of the basic memory cell and associated complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) peripheral circuitry on the memory chip. A SONOS 1TC memory cell is proposed in a NOR architecture with a cell area of 6F 2 , where F is the technology feature size. A 0.20 m feature size permits a 1TC area of 0.24 m 2 for advanced 1-Gb nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips. A physical model is presented to characterize the erase/write, retention and endurance properties of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory (NVSM) SONOS device.

show abstract

The variable-threshold transistor, a new electrically-alterable, nondestructive READ-only storage device

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Present and Future Non-Volatile Memories for Space

Present and Future Non-Volatile Memories for Space

Undercoordinated indium as an intrinsic electron-trap center in amorphous InGaZnO4

A low voltage SONOS nonvolatile semiconductor memory technology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About