SILICON SINGLE-ELECTRON MEMORY CELL

A compact single-electron memory cell has been fabricated in silicon u sing a process that is compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semic onductor circuit fabrication. The device is based on the Coulomb block ade effect observed in highly doped silicon nanowires. The circuit sho ws clear memory operation with a >100 mV gap between ''0'' and ''1'' l evels when tested at a temperature of 4.2 K. The response of the circu it to write and erase pulse sequences is also presented. (C) 1998 Amer ican Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)02041-5].