Limitations and challenges of multigigabit DRAM chip design

This paper describes the limitations and challenges involved in designing gigabit DRAM chips in terms of high-density devices, high-performance circuits, and low-power/low-voltage circuits, The key results obtained are as follows, 1) For formation of a MOSFET shallow junction, which suppresses threshold voltage (V-T) variation and offset voltage of sense amplifiers, reduction in ion-implantation energy and process temperature is essential, Also, the keys in terms of area, speed, stable cell operation, and ease of fabrication are use of low-resistivity multilevel metal wiring and high permittivity materials and three-dimensional memory cells to reduce a difference in height between the memory cell array and the surrounding peripheral circuits, 2) For creation of a high speed, the keys are memory-subsystem technology such as pipeline operation, nide-bit I/O, low-voltage interfaces, and high-density packaging, Embedded DRAM further enhances the speed and throughput by using massively parallel processing of signals on a large number of data-lines and reducing internal bus capacitances, 3) For power reduction, the key continues to be reduction of the data-line dissipating charge through both partial activation of multidivided data-lines and lowering of the data-line voltage, Ultralow-voltage operation, essential to drastic power reduction, can be achieved by subthreshold-current reduction circuits such as source-gate backbiasing, multi-V-T, dynamic V-t, and node-boosting schemes.