Method for injecting charge in field effect devices

Details Method for injecting charge in field effect devices Method for injecting charge in field effect devices

1976-11-19

1978-02-21

Wojciechowicz, Edward J.

357 53, H01L 2978, H01L 2940

Patent

active

040756530

ABSTRACT:
A method is presented for accelerating the injection of minority carriers into an insulating layer overlying a semiconductor substrate under conditions less severe than required to produce impact ionization. The method is useful in characterizing parameters of field effect integrated circuit components subject to various charge instability mechanisms and may also be useful as a means for altering charge conditions in various non-volatile memory devices. A field effect device structure comprising a semiconductor p-n junction adjacent to an insulated gate electrode is utilized in which a depletion region is created under the gate electrode in the presence of alternating forward and reverse biasing of the p-n junction. During the forward bias condition minority carriers are injected into the semiconductor substrate adjacent to the gate electrode structure. During the reverse bias condition previously injected free minority carriers are accelerated by the depletion field produced by the gate electrode such that significant quantities of carriers exceed the semiconductor/insulator barrier potential and are injected into the insulator. The presence of traps in the insulator allows the capture of some of the minority carriers causing a charge to be built up in the insulator which reduces the effective field in the insulator which reduces the effective field in the semiconductor caused by the gate electrode potential. This effect in an MOSFET results in a reduction of threshold voltage. The charge injection technique may be used in combination with majority charge injection techniques, such as drain avalanching, to provide a re-writable non-volatile memory element.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3893151 (1975-07-01), Bosselaar et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Method for injecting charge in field effect devices does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method for injecting charge in field effect devices, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for injecting charge in field effect devices will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-130478