A NOVEL HIGH-SPEED, 3-ELEMENT SI-BASED STATIC RANDOM-ACCESS MEMORY (SRAM) CELL

A novel three element SRAM cell consisting of a gate, a load, and a bi stable SiGe/Si diode as the storage element is proposed and demonstrat ed with a test structure, Containing two closely-spaced delta-doped la yers and a SiGe/Si strained superlattice, the diode exhibits two stabl e states with a conductance contrast of over six orders of magnitude, which offers the possibility for the new cell to operate with a low po wer dissipation, Because the size of the diode can be as small as the design rules allow, the cell area will be comparable with that of the conventional DRAM cell, The high speed operation mechanism of the diod e also provides a potential application for high speed SRAM using this cell.