摘要
Ge is an attractive alternative to replace Si as the body material for scaled CMOS technologies. This work comprehensively investigates hot-electron generation and injection in the Ge-based channel body and gate dielectric charge-trapping memory. This study numerically elucidates the mechanisms of transverse dielectric and lateral channel band engineering used in source-side and drain-side injection. Various Ge- and Si-based cells are compared to determine the optimal low-voltage energy-efficient cells. The Ge-body cells with Si-based gate dielectrics have slightly higher source-side and drain-side injection than their Si-body counterparts based on their intrinsic dielectric barriers and impact ionization rates. The Ge-based gate dielectric has a key function in tailoring the transverse dielectric barriers for hot-electron injection, while the Schottky barrier source/drain plays a major role in controlling the lateral channel band bending of high-field spots for efficient source-side injection. Incorporating the Ge-based gate dielectrics and Schottky barrier source/drain into the Ge-body, the Ge-based charge-trapping cell can be separately optimized in terms of the lateral channel and the transverse dielectrics to ensure the most efficient low-voltage injection, serving as a promising green cell. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.