A novel SET/MOSFET hybrid static memory cell design

Abstract

In this paper, a single electron transistor (SET)/metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET)-based static memory cell is proposed. The negative differential conductance (NDC) characteristics of the SET block help us establish the static memory cell circuits more compactly than those in conventional technologies. The proposed memory cell consists of one MOSFET and two back-to-back connected SET blocks exhibiting the NDC. The peak-to-valley current ratio of the SET block is above four with C-G = 5.4C(T) (C-T = 0.1 aF) at T = 77 K. The read and write operations of the proposed memory cell were validated with SET/MOSFET hybrid simulations at T = 77 K. Even though the fabrication process that integrates MOSFET devices and SET blocks with NDC is not yet available, these results suggest that the proposed SET/MOSFET hybrid static memory cell is suitable for a high-density memory system.