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In this study, we investigate the temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of bistable silicon resistors (biristors) at temperatures ranging from 275 to 400 K. The proposed biristor exhibits low latch voltages owing to the surface accumulation layer transistor concept. Moreover, the biristor was abruptly turned on and off by positive and negative feedback phenomena, respectively. As the temperature increased from 275 to 400 K, the latch-up voltage decreased from 2.131 to 1.696 V, while the latch-down voltage increased from 1.486 to 1.637 V. Mechanisms of temperature-dependent change in latch voltage were analyzed using energy band diagrams. This temperature-dependent analysis on silicon biristor can serve as blueprint for the contribution of stable operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate the temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of bistable silicon resistors (biristors) at temperatures ranging from 275 to 400 K. The proposed biristor exhibits low latch voltages owing to the surface accumulation layer transistor concept. Moreover, the biristor was abruptly turned on and off by positive and negative feedback phenomena, respectively. As the temperature increased from 275 to 400 K, the latch-up voltage decreased from 2.131 to 1.696 V, while the latch-down voltage increased from 1.486 to 1.637 V. Mechanisms of temperature-dependent change in latch voltage were analyzed using energy band diagrams. This temperature-dependent analysis on silicon biristor can serve as blueprint for the contribution of stable operation.

In this paper, using 2-D simulations, we report a silicon biristor with reduced operating voltage using the surface accumulation layer transistor (SALTran) concept. The electrical characteristics of the proposed SALTran biristor are simulated and compared with that of a conventional silicon biristor with identical dimensions. The proposed device is optimized with respect to the device parameters to ensure a reasonable latch window while maintaining low latch voltages. Our results demonstrate that the SALTran biristor exhibits a latch-up voltage of 2.14 V and a latch-down voltage of 1.68 V leading to a 57% lower operating voltage compared to the conventional silicon biristor.

In this paper, using 2-D simulations, we report a novel junction-less biristor in which the emitter and collector regions are created by applying the charge plasma concept on a P-doped silicon film. Since no chemical doping is required, the junction-less biristor can be realized with a low thermal budget. We demonstrate that the junction-less biristor exhibits not only a significant low latch-up voltage (2.0 V) but also has a large latch window (0.66 V) when compared to that of a conventional silicon biristor with similar parameters. The reasons for this improved performance are discussed.

In this brief, we report a novel metal-semiconductor–metal-based bistable resistor, called the Schottky biristor, whose performance is superior to the existing bipolar junction transistor-based biristors. The proposed device can be realized by joining symmetrical Schottky contacts back to back. Apart from being free of the thermal budgets involved in the fabrication of p-n junctions in a biristor, the Schottky biristor also has much lower latch voltages (latch-up voltage of 1.62 V and latch-down voltage of 1.18 V) and a reasonable latch window (0.44 V) as demonstrated by our simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A bandgap-engineered silicon-germanium biristor for low-voltage operation is investigated through numerical simulations. A reduced latch-up voltage is achieved using germanium as a base, and improved hysteresis is attained by adopting a hetero-bandgap structure which harnesses the silicon-germanium composite at the collector/emitter. The geometric parameters of the base length and base diameter are optimized. The proposed device shows a much lower latch-up voltage than a pure-silicon biristor and larger hysteresis than a pure-germanium biristor. Thus, the proposed bandgap-engineered silicon-germanium biristor is preferable for low-voltage operations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Trigger and self-latch mechanisms in n-p-n bistable resistor (biristor) were investigated. A two terminal vertical n-p-n biristor with floating p-type base was fabricated on a bulk silicon wafer. The temperature and current compliance effects on the current-voltage characteristics were analyzed to understand the underlying physical mechanism. The fact that the current compliance is temperature independent suggests that latch-up is triggered by band-to-band tunneling. In contrast, the high temperature and current compliance diminished the latch-down and hysteresis loop, which reveals that impact ionization is responsible for self-latching at bistable regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term endurance characteristics are investigated for MOSFET-based capacitorless one-transistor DRAM (1T-DRAM) under the conventional versus biristor mode. Based on the experimental results and on a supporting simulation study, it was found that the MOSFET-based 1T-DRAM, when enabled by a biristor mode, is preferred for long-term endurance compared with MOSFET-based 1T-DRAM when operated in a conventional mode. Although a high drain voltage is required in the biristor mode for programming, improved endurance characteristics are observed. The simulation study showed that this feature is achieved by the suppression of hot-hole-induced degradation, which arises from the absence of a gate use at the dynamic cell. Thus, this letter provides a new type of device architecture as well as a novel and innovative operational method pertaining to conventional 1T-DRAM to mitigate the problem of limited endurance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unidirectional read-out characteristics of a two-terminal biristor are investigated through numerical simulations and experiments. The base doping profile in the biristor, which is analogous to an open-base bipolar junction transistor (BJT), is a key parameter to control both the multiplication factor and the common–emitter gain of the open-base BJT. The simulated results indicate that the asymmetric base doping produces a difference in the latch-up voltage according to the reading direction. A unidirectional conduction path is thereby implemented in a crossbar-array configuration that consists of only the two-terminal biristor. The experimental results based on a vertical structure with local charge injection support that the leakage path through the reverse read direction can be blocked by the asymmetric base doping structure with the selection of proper bias conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]