Title :
Detection and Classification of Single-Electron Jumps in Si Nanocrystal Memories
Author :
Pace, Calogero ; Giusi, Gino ; Crupi, Felice ; Lombardo, Salvatore A.
Author_Institution :
Calabria Univ., Rende
Abstract :
In this paper, we report a purposely designed instrumentation and a jump detection procedure for the measurement of single-electron phenomena in solid-state nonvolatile memories based on a silicon nanocrystal floating gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor. The stepwise evolution of the drain current of a memory cell after a ldquowriterdquo operation is monitored by means of a purposely designed low-noise acquisition system with a bandwidth of up to 10 kHz. The advantage of the measurement system background noise and bandwidth over a traditional semiconductor parameter analyzer performance is evident in the detection and classification of single-electron events.
Keywords :
MOS memory circuits; MOSFET; electric variables measurement; elemental semiconductors; nanostructured materials; semiconductor storage; silicon; single electron transistors; "write" operation; Si; background noise; classification; drain current; low-noise acquisition system; measurement system; metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor; silicon nanocrystal memories; single-electron jumps; solid-state nonvolatile memories; Background noise; Bandwidth; FETs; Instruments; Monitoring; Nanocrystals; Noise measurement; Nonvolatile memory; Silicon; Solid state circuits; Low-noise amplifiers; MOSFET memory integrated circuits; low-noise bias circuits; nonvolatile memories; wafer-level measurements;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TIM.2007.909469
