Retention and switching kinetics of protonated gate field-effect transistors

The switching and memory retention time has been measured in 50 mu m gate-length "pseudo" nonvolatile memory metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors containing protonated 40 nm gate oxides. Times of the order of 3.3 s are observed for fields of 3 MV cm(-1). The retention time with protons placed either at the gate oxide/substrate or gate oxide/gate electrode interfaces is found to be better than 96% after 5000 s. Measurement of the time dependence of the source-drain current during switching provides clear evidence for the presence of dispersive proton transport through the gate oxide. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)00317-0].