ULTRARAM: A Low-Energy, High-Endurance, Compound-Semiconductor Memory on Silicon

TY – JOUR

T1 – ULTRARAM

T2 – A Low-Energy, High-Endurance, Compound-Semiconductor Memory on Silicon

AU – Hodgson, Peter

AU – Lane, Dominic

AU – Carrington, Peter

AU – Delli, Evangelia

AU – Beanland, Richard

AU – Hayne, Manus

PY – 2022/4/30

Y1 – 2022/4/30

N2 – ULTRARAM is a nonvolatile memory with the potential to achieve fast, ultralow-energy electron storage in a floating gate accessed through a triple-barrier resonant tunneling heterostructure. Here its implementation is reported on a Si substrate; a vital step toward cost-effective mass production. Sample growth using molecular beam epitaxy commences with deposition of an AlSb nucleation layer to seed the growth of a GaSb buffer layer, followed by the III–V memory epilayers. Fabricated single-cell memories show clear 0/1 logic-state contrast after ≤10 ms duration program/erase pulses of ≈2.5 V, a remarkably fast switching speed for 10 and 20 µm devices. Furthermore, the combination of low voltage and small device capacitance per unit area results in a switching energy that is orders of magnitude lower than dynamic random access memory and flash, for a given cell size. Extended testing of devices reveals retention in excess of 1000 years and degradation-free endurance of over 107 program/erase cycles, surpassing very recent results for similar devices on GaAs substrates.

AB – ULTRARAM is a nonvolatile memory with the potential to achieve fast, ultralow-energy electron storage in a floating gate accessed through a triple-barrier resonant tunneling heterostructure. Here its implementation is reported on a Si substrate; a vital step toward cost-effective mass production. Sample growth using molecular beam epitaxy commences with deposition of an AlSb nucleation layer to seed the growth of a GaSb buffer layer, followed by the III–V memory epilayers. Fabricated single-cell memories show clear 0/1 logic-state contrast after ≤10 ms duration program/erase pulses of ≈2.5 V, a remarkably fast switching speed for 10 and 20 µm devices. Furthermore, the combination of low voltage and small device capacitance per unit area results in a switching energy that is orders of magnitude lower than dynamic random access memory and flash, for a given cell size. Extended testing of devices reveals retention in excess of 1000 years and degradation-free endurance of over 107 program/erase cycles, surpassing very recent results for similar devices on GaAs substrates.

KW – ULTRARAM

KW – Silicon

KW – Compound semiconductors

KW – Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)

KW – memory

U2 – 10.1002/aelm.202101103

DO – 10.1002/aelm.202101103

M3 – Journal article

VL – 8

JO – Advanced Electronic Materials

JF – Advanced Electronic Materials

SN – 2199-160X

IS – 4

M1 – 2101103

ER –