Novel Capacitorless 1T-DRAM Cell for 22-nm Node Compatible With Bulk and SOI Substrates

A new concept of multibody single-transistor dynamic-random-access-memory cell fully compatible with both standard bulk and silicon-on-insulator substrates is presented. Its novelty comes from the juxtaposition of two silicon films with opposed doping polarities (i.e., a p-n junction), which define a body partitioning for hole storage and current sense. The charge accumulated in the top body controls the current flowing through the bottom body. The scalability is ensured due to the suppression of the supercoupling effect, thus allowing the coexistence of electrons and holes in very thin transistors. Numerical simulations of electrostatics and dynamic operation show how the transient response of this device can be used for dynamic-memory applications, achieving attractive performance in terms of state discrimination and retention time in very scaled devices.