Title :
Impact of Heavy-Ion Strikes on Nanocrystal Non Volatile Memory Cell Arrays
Author :
Cester, Andrea ; Gasperin, Alberto ; Wrachien, Nicola ; Paccagnella, Alessandro ; Ancarani, Valentina ; Gerardi, Cosimo
Author_Institution :
Dipt. di Ingegneria dell´´Informazione, Padova Univ.
Abstract :
In this work we focused our attention on heavy ion irradiation effects on nanocrystal memory cell arrays. All cells are fabricated by depositing Si nanocrystal on top of a SiO2 layer. Immediately after irradiation we observed neither charge loss following the ion hit, nor appreciable change of the electrical characteristics of the nanocrystal MOSFETs, such as transconductance and drain current decrease. In addition, despite the gate oxide leakage current may show a large increase after irradiation with high energy ions, the data retention time of the cells is not compromised, due to the discrete nature of the nanocrystal storage node
Keywords :
CMOS memory circuits; ion beam effects; nanostructured materials; CMOS memory integrated circuits; Si; Si nanocrystal; SiO2; SiO2 layer; data retention time; gate oxide leakage current; heavy ion irradiation effects; high energy ions; nanocrystal MOSFET; nanocrystal nonvolatile memory cell arrays; nanocrystal storage node; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Electric variables; Fabrication; Leakage current; MOSFETs; Nanocrystals; Nonvolatile memory; Silicon; Space technology; CMOS memory integrated circuits; heavy ion irradiation; non-volatile memories; radiation effects;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2006.885004
