Background charge insensitive Single-Electron Memory Devices

K.Yadavalli, A.Orlov, G.Snider, K.Likharev, A.Korotkov
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, US

Keywords: single-electron memory, Nordheim-Fowler tunneling

Abstract:
In a Single-Electron Memory Cell (SEMC) one bit of information is represented by the excess or shortfall of a small (¡Ý1) number of electrons on the floating gate (FG). We present experimental results on the all-metallic FG memory devices fabricated using aluminum tunnel junction technology [3] with variable barrier separating FG and its control gate (CG). We report the operation of SEMC in one electron mode.Experimental results are compared with calculations and a very good match is observed. We discuss several regimes of SEMC operation and various methods to improve the performance of this type of memory.

NSTI Nanotech 2003 Conference Technical Program Abstract