Location of holes in silicon-rich oxide as memory states

The induced changes of the flatband voltage by the location of holes in a silicon-rich oxide (SRO) film sandwiched between two thin SiO 2 layers [used as gate dielectric in a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor] can be used as the two states of a memory cell. The principle of operation is based on holes permanently trapped in the SRO layer and reversibly moved up and down, close to the metal and the semiconductor, in order to obtain the two logic states of the memory. The concept has been verified by suitable experiments on MOS structures. The device exhibits an excellent endurance behavior and, due to the low mobility of the holes at low field in the SRO layer, a much longer refresh time compared to conventional dynamic random access memory cells. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.