Energy consumption optimization in nonvolatile silicon nanocrystal memories

Author

Della Marca, V. ; Amouroux, Julien ; Delalleau, Julien ; Lopez, Laurent ; Ogier, Jean-Luc ; Postel-Pellerin, Jérémy ; Lalande, Frédéric ; Molas, Gabriel

Author_Institution

STMicroelectron., Rousset, France

Volume

2

fYear

2011

fDate

17-19 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

339

Lastpage

342

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the energy consumption of Discrete-Trap Silicon Nanocrystal (Si-nc) Nonvolatile Memory Cell during Channel Hot Electron programming operation. We compare this cell with a Floating Gate Flash in order to evaluate the current absorption and the energy consumption under different conditions. Using a commercial TCAD simulator, a good agreement between data and simulations is obtained and the involved mechanisms are analysed. Then we propose a solution to optimize the programming window and energy consumption trade-off for Si-nc Flash Cells.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; energy consumption; flash memories; hot carriers; nanostructured materials; random-access storage; silicon; Si; channel hot electron programming operation; energy consumption optimization; energy consumption trade-off; flash cells; floating gate flash; nonvolatile memory cell; nonvolatile silicon nanocrystal memories; programming window; Computer architecture; Current measurement; Energy consumption; Nanocrystals; Nonvolatile memory; Programming; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Conference (CAS), 2011 International

Conference_Location

Sinaia

ISSN

1545-827X

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-173-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMICND.2011.6095810

Filename

6095810