A low VDD current mirror with deep sub-micron vertical MOSFETs is presented. The keys are new bias circuits to reduce both the minimum VDD for the operation and the sensitivity of the output current on VDD. In the simulation, our circuits reduce the minimum VDD by about 17% and the VDD sensitivity by one order both from those of the conventional. In the simulation with 90nm φ vertical MOSFET approximate models, our circuit shows about 4MΩ output resistance at 1.2-V VDD with the small temperature dependence, which is about six times as large as that with planar MOSFETs.

In this paper, a high performance current latch sense amplifier (CLSA) with vertical MOSFET is proposed, and its performances are investigated. The proposed CLSA with the vertical MOSFET realizes a 11% faster sensing time with about 3% smaller current consumption relative to the conventional CLSA with the planar MOSFET. Moreover, the proposed CLSA with the vertical MOSFET achieves an 1.11 dB increased voltage gain G(f) relative to the conventional CLSA with the planar MOSFET. Furthermore, the proposed CLSA realizes up to about 1.7% larger yield than the conventional CLSA, and its circuit area is 42% smaller than the conventional CLSA.

In this paper, a Schmitt Trigger based 10T SRAM (ST 10T SRAM) cell with the vertical MOSFET is proposed for low supply voltage operation, and its impacts on cell size, stability and speed performance are investigated. The proposed ST 10T SRAM cell with the vertical MOSFET achieves smaller cell size than the ST 10T SRAM cell with the conventional planar MOSFET. Moreover, the proposed SRAM cell realizes large and constant static noise margin (SNM) against bottom node resistance of the vertical MOSFET without any architectural changes from the present 6T SRAM architecture. The proposed SRAM cell also suppresses the degradation of the read time of the ST 10T SRAM cell due to the back-bias effect free characteristic of the vertical MOSFET. The proposed ST 10T SRAM cell with the vertical MOSFET is a superior SRAM cell for low supply voltage operation with a small cell size, stable operation, and fast speed performance with the present 6T SRAM architecture.

In this paper, Source/Drain (S/D) engineering for high performance (HP) Vertical MOSFET (V-MOSFET) in 3Xnm generation and its beyond is investigated, by using gradual S/D profile while degradation of driving current (ION) due to the parasitic series resistance (Rpara) is minimized through two-dimensional device simulation taking into account for gate-induced-drain-leakage (GIDL). In general, it is significant to reduce spreading resistance in the case of conventional Planar MOSFET. Therefore, in this study, we focused and analyzed the abruptness of diffusion layer that is still importance parameter in V-MOSFET. First, for improving the basic device performance such as subthreshold swing (SS), ION, and Rpara, S/D engineering is investigated. The dependency of device performance on S/D abruptness (σS/D) for various Lightly Doped Drain Extension (LDD) abruptness (σLDD) is analyzed. In this study, Spacer Length (LSP) is defined as a function of σS/D. As σS/D becomes smaller and S/D becomes more abrupt, LSP becomes shorter. SS depends on the σS/D rather than the σLDD. ION has the peak value of 1750 µA/µm at σS/D = 2 nm/dec. and σLDD=3 nm/dec. when the silicon pillar diameter (D) is 30 nm and the gate length (Lg) is 60 nm. As σS/D becomes small, higher ION is obtained due to reduction of Rpara while SS is degraded. However, when σS/D becomes too small in the short channel devices (Lg = 60 nm and Lg = 45 nm), ION is degraded because the leakage current due to GIDL is increased and reaches IOFF limit of 100 nA/µm. In addition, as σLDD becomes larger, larger ION is obtained in the case of Lg = 100 nm and Lg = 60 nm because channel length becomes shorter. On the other hand, in the case of Lg = 45 nm, as σLDD becomes larger, ION is degraded because short channel effect (SCE) becomes significant. Next, the dependency of the basic device performance on D is investigated. By slimming D from 30 nm to 10 nm, while SS is improved and approaches the ideal value of 60 mV/Decade, ION is degraded due to increase of on-resistance (Ron). From these results, it is necessary to reduce Rpara while IOFF meets limit of 100 nA/µm for designing S/D of HP V-MOSFET. Especially for the V-MOSFET in the 1Xnm generation and its beyond, the influence of the Rpara and GIDL on ION becomes more significant, and therefore, the trade-off between σS/D and ION has a much greater impact on S/D engineering of V-MOSFET.

We have studied the transport property of the Vertical MOSFET (V-MOSFET) with an impurity from the viewpoint of quantum electron dynamics. In order to obtain the position dependence of impurity for the electron transmission property through the channel of the V-MOSFET, we solve the time-dependent Shrodinger equation in real space mesh technique We reveal that the impurity in the source edge can assist the electron transmission from the source to drain working as a wave splitter. In addition, we also reveal the effect of an impurity in the surface of pillar is limited because of its dimensionality. Furthermore, we obtained that the electron injection from the source to the channel becomes difficult due to the energy difference between the subbands of the source and the channel. These results enable us to obtain the guiding principle to design the V-MOSFET in the 10 nm pillar. The results enable us to obtain the guiding principle to design the V-MOSFET beyond 20 nm design rule.

Several kinds of capacitor-less DRAM cells based on planar SOI-MOSFET technology have been proposed and researched to overcome the integration limit of the conventional DRAM. In this paper, we propose the Floating Body type DRAM cell array architecture with the Vertical MOSFET and discuss its basic operation using a 3-D device simulator. In contrast to previous planar SOI-MOSFET technology, the Floating Body type DRAM with the Vertical MOSFET achieves a cell area of 4F2 and obtain its floating body cell by isolating the body from the substrate vertically by the bottom-electrode. Therefore, the necessity for a SOI substrate is eliminated. In this paper, the cell array architecture of Floating Body type 1T-DRAM is proposed, and furthermore, the basic memory operations of read, write, and erase for Vertical type 1 transistor (1T) DRAM in the 45 nm technology node are shown. In addition, the retention and disturb characteristics of the Vertical type 1T-DRAM are discussed.

The excellent performance of the 10 nm gate Multi-Nano-Pillar type (M-) Vertical MOSFET has been numerically shown for the first time. It is made clear that the M-Vertical MOSFET, in comparison with the conventional Single Pillar type (S-) Vertical MOSFET, has achieved an increased driving current by more than 2 times, a nearly ideal S-factor, and a suppressed cutoff-leakage current by less than 1/60 by suppressing both the short channel effect and the DIBL effect. Moreover, mechanisms of these improvements of the M-Vertical MOSFET are made clear. From all of the above, it is shown that the M-Vertical MOSFET is a key device candidate for future high speed and low power LSI's in the sub-10 nm generation.

We have studied transmission property of electron in vertical MOSFET (V-MOSFET) from the viewpoint of quantum electro-dynamics. To obtain the intuitive picture of electron transmission property through channel of the V-MOSFET, we solve the time-dependent Schrodinger equation in real space by employing the split operator method. We injected an electron wave packet into the body of the V-MOSFET from the source, and traced the time-development of electron-wave function in the body and drain region. We successfully showed that the electron wave function propagates through the resonant states of the body potential. Our suggested approaches open the quantative and intuitive discussion for the carrier dynamics in the V-MOSFET on quantum limit.

In this paper, the device performances of sub-10 nm Vertical MOSFETs are investigated. One of the drawbacks of conventional planar MOSFETs is that in the sub-10 nm generation, its cutoff leakage current increases due to the short channel effects, but even more, its driving current decreases due to the quantum mechanical confinement effects such as the sub-band effect and the depletion of the inversion layer. It is shown for the first time that by downscaling the silicon pillar diameter from 20 nm to 4 nm, the Vertical MOSFET increases its driving current per footprint to about 2 times and suppresses its total cutoff leakage current per footprint to less than 1/60 at the same time. Moreover, the mechanisms of these improvements of Vertical MOSFET performances are clarified. The results of this work show that Vertical MOSFETs can overcome the drawbacks of conventional planar MOSFETs and achieve the high device performance through the sub-10 nm generation.