A Study On the Retention Time Distribution with Plasma Damage Effect

The control of the data retention time is a main issue for realizing future high density dynamic random access memory. There are several leakage current mechanisms in which the stored data disappears. The mechanisms of data disappear is as follow, 1 )Junction leakage current between the junction, 2) Junction leakage current from the capacitor node contact, 3)Sub-threshold leakage current if the transfer transistor is affected by gate etch damage etc. In this paper we showed the plasma edge damage effect to find out data retention time effectiveness. First we measured the transistor characteristics of forward and reverse bias. And junction leakage characteristics are measured with/without plasma damage by HP4145. Finally, we showed the comparison TRET with etch damage, damage_cure_RTP and hydrogen_treatment. As a result, hydrogen_treatment is superior than any other method in a curing plasma etch damage side.