Memristively programmable transistors

Nanotechnology, vol. 33, pp. 045203

Abstract

When designing the gate-dielectric of a floating-gate-transistor, one must make a tradeoff between the necessity of providing an ultra-small leakage current behavior for long state retention, and a moderate to high tunneling-rate for fast programming speed. Here we report on a memristively programmable transistor that overcomes this tradeoff. The operation principle is comparable to floating-gate-transistors, but the advantage of the analyzed concept is that ions instead of electrons are used for programming. Since the mass of ions is significantly larger than the effective mass of electrons, gate-dielectrics with higher leakage current levels can be used. We demonstrate the practical feasibility of the device using a proof-of-concept study based on a micrometer-sized thin-film transistor and LT-Spice simulations of 32 nm transistors. Memristively programmable transistors have the potential of high programming endurance and retention times, fast programming speeds, and high scalability.

Authors 4

1. Stefan Tappertzhofen

   TU Dortmund University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair for Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, TU Dortmund University, Emil-Figge-Straße 68, D-44227, Dortmund, Germany

2. Lutz Nielen Aachen aixACCT Systems GmbH

   aixACCT Systems (Germany)

   Affiliation as printed

   aixACCT Systems GmbH, Talbotstraße 25, D-52068 Aachen, Germany

3. Ilia Valov Aachen Institute for Electronic Materials (IWE 2)

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Electronic Materials (IWE 2) RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeld Straße 24, D-52074 Aachen, Germany

   Jülich Research Center, Peter-Grünberg-Institute 7 (PGI 7), Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße 1, D-52428 Jülich, Germany

4. Rainer M. Waser Aachen Institute for Electronic Materials (IWE 2)

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Electronic Materials (IWE 2) RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeld Straße 24, D-52074 Aachen, Germany

   Jülich Research Center, Peter-Grünberg-Institute 7 (PGI 7), Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße 1, D-52428 Jülich, Germany