Row Hammer Reduction Using a Buried Insulator in a Buried Channel Array Transistor

Abstract

In this article, we propose an analysis of the usage of a partial isolation type buried channel array transistor (Pi-BCAT). Compared with other structures, the conventional BCAT exhibits improved characteristics in the row hammer effect (RHE) because of its shallow drain/body (D/B) junction. Nevertheless, it remains affected by the RHE and should be mitigated because it is directly related to the reliability of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) applications. The proposed device exhibits a 50% improvement in the RHE and reduces leakage current ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{{\mathrm {OFF}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) to one-third the level of conventional BCATs while also minimizing the ON -current ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{{\mathrm {ON}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) reduction. Moreover, to efficiently compare RHE, we compare <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {V}_{\text {SN}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> by RHE and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {V}_{\text {SN}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> based on the gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) according to bias conditions and the device’s parameters. Finally, we optimize the parameter values of the buried insulator by considering electrical characteristics and the RHE.