Radiation induced leakage current in floating gate memory cells

Author

Cellere, G. ; Larcher, L. ; Paccagnella, A. ; Visconti, A. ; Bonanomi, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Eng., Padova Univ., Italy

Volume

52

Issue

6

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2144

Lastpage

2152

Abstract

Single ions impacting on SiO₂ layers generate tracks of defects which may result in a Radiation Induced Leakage Current (RILC). This current is usually studied as the cumulative effect of ion-induced defects in capacitors with ultra-thin oxides. We are demonstrating and modeling this phenomenon in 10 nm oxides by using Floating Gate memories. The impact of a single, high-LET ion can result in severe retention problems, due to several electrically active defects, which cooperate to slowly discharge the FG. We are also proposing innovative simulation tools to reproduce this phenomenon. Results from simulations fully explain our results, and also agree with existing data on thinner (4 nm) oxides.

Keywords

MOS memory circuits; MOSFET; capacitors; defect states; ion beam effects; leakage currents; semiconductor device models; silicon compounds; 10 nm; LET; MOSFET; SiO₂; SiO₂ layers; capacitors; cumulative effect; electrically active defects; floating gate memory cells; heavy ion irradiation; ion-induced defects; radiation induced leakage current; simulation tools; single event effects; ultra-thin oxides; Capacitors; Character generation; Charge carrier processes; Electron traps; Helium; Leakage current; MOSFETs; Nonvolatile memory; Read-write memory; Spontaneous emission; Floating gate memories; radiation induced leakage current; single event effects;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2005.860725

Filename

1589175