ONE-TRANSISTOR GAAS MESFET-ACCESSED AND JFET-ACCESSED DYNAMIC RAM CELLS FOR HIGH-SPEED MEDIUM DENSITY APPLICATIONS

The introduction of digital GaAs into modern computing systems has lead to increasing demand for high-density memory in these GaAs technologies. To date, most of the memory development efforts in GaAs have been directed toward four- and six-transistor static RAM's, which consume substantial chip area and dissipate much static-power. This paper discusses theoretical and experimental work that presents the possibility for a high-speed, Ion-power one-transistor room-temperature dynamic RAM technology in GaAs. Isolated storage capacitors have demonstrated over 20 min of storage time at room temperature with charge densities comparable to that obtained with planar silicon technology. One-transistor MESFET- and JFET-accessed DRAM cells have been fabricated and operated at room temperature and above. The standby power dissipation of these first cells is only a small fraction of the power dissipated by the best commercial GaAs SRAM cells. © 1990 IEEE