The impacts of SILC and hot carrier induced drain leakage current on the refresh time in DRAM

Abstract

This paper reports the temperature dependence of SILC and hot carrier induced drain leakage current, and their impact on the refresh time in Giga-bit level DRAM with practical considerations. SILC has been found to increase as the monitoring and stress temperature increases. Due to the generation of interface states, hot carrier induced pn junction leakage current and band-to-band tunneling current have been found to increase as the monitoring temperature increases.From the simulation results of a refresh circuit for Giga-bit level DRAM, it has been found that the increase of SILC with stress time is a dominant factor in refresh failure below 373K, and the pn junction leakage current will be a dominant factor at the high elevated temperature. It has been also observed that the increase of hot carrier induced drain leakage current can be a cause for the refresh failure.