Novel Vertical Channel-All-Around (CAA) In-Ga-Zn-O FET for 2T0C-DRAM With High Density Beyond 4F2 by Monolithic Stacking

For the first time, we propose a stackable vertical channel-all-around (CAA) In–Ga–Zn-O field-effect transistor (IGZO FET) for high-density 4F² and long-retention 2T0C dynamic random access memory (DRAM) application. The device is fabricated in a back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible process flow where the channel and gate-stack are deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD). The impact of IGZO cycle ratio and plasma power on the device’s electrical performance is studied. An optimized 50-nm channel-length CAA IGZO FET achieved ${I}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}} > 30 ~\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ and ${I}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}$ below $1.8\times10$ ⁻¹⁷ $\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ at ${V}_{\text {DS}} = 1$ V. A long retention of 300 s has been experimentally verified for the CAA IGZO 2T0C bit cell, making it a potential candidate for low-power 2T0C DRAM with ultralow refresh frequency. Finally, by monolithically stacking the vertical CAA IGZO FETs with 130-nm critical dimension (CD) to form 2T0C bit cells, we demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed BEOL-compatible 2T0C DRAM for further density scaling beyond 4F².