Memristively Programmable Transistors

当今占主导地位的闪存技术的核心元素是浮栅晶体管。在设计浮栅晶体管的栅电介质时，必须在快速写访问和长状态保持之间进行权衡。我们最近报道了一种记忆可编程晶体管的新原型。MemTRs的优点是，逻辑状态是通过纳米离子过程编码的，而不是像浮栅晶体管那样的经典电荷存储。这提供了快速写访问、长状态保持和高编程耐久性的潜力。Memtr本质上是晶体管和集成在晶体管栅极接触上的电阻开关(也称为Memristive Switch或Memristor)的创新组合。电阻开关是一种低功耗器件，编程和写入访问时间较短。由于其类比和非线性行为，记忆器件也被用于神经形态的应用。根据我们的初步概念验证结果，将制造、表征和优化emtr。我们将利用与BEOL兼容的制造工艺。我们将利用先进的电学、光谱和显微技术对器件和工作原理进行详细的表征。这些发现将被用来从根本上理解MEMTRS的工作原理，并用于进一步的器件优化。基于这些结果，我们还将从实验上分析Memtrs在神经形态学中的应用潜力。

The core-element of today’s dominating Flash-memory technology are floating-gate transistors. When designing the gate-dielectric of floating-gate transistors, a tradeoff between fast write-access and long state retention has to be made. We recently reported on a novel prototype of a memristively programmable transistor (memTR). The advantage of memTRs is that the logic state is encoded by nanoionic processes instead of classical charge storage as in case of floating-gate transistors. This offers the potential of fast write-access, long state retention and high programming endurance. A memTR is essentially an innovative combination of a transistor and a resistive switch (also known as memristive switch or memristor) integrated on the transistor’s gate contact. Resistive switches are low-power devices with short programming and write access times. Due to their analogue and non-linear behavior memristive devices are also used in neuromorphic applications. Based on our preliminary proof-of-concept results memTRs will be fabricated, characterized and optimized. We will make use of BEOL-compatible fabrication processes. We will characterize in detail the devices and the operation principle using advanced electrical, spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. These findings will be used for a fundamental understanding of the operation principle of memTRs and for further device optimization. Based on these results we will also experimentally analyze the application potential of memTRs for neuromorphics.