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Directional Breakdown of Metal/a-Si:H/c-Si Heterostructures and its Application to PROMs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Hong Zhu
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials and Processing Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 227 Hammond Bldg, University Park, PA 16802
Ali Kaan Kalkan
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials and Processing Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 227 Hammond Bldg, University Park, PA 16802
Joseph Cuiffi
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials and Processing Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 227 Hammond Bldg, University Park, PA 16802
Stephen J Fonash
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials and Processing Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, 227 Hammond Bldg, University Park, PA 16802
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Abstract

This paper gives the first report of a directional breakdown phenomenon present in specially constructed amorphous silicon / crystalline silicon heterojunction structures. After breakdown, the forward current can be greatly increased, but the reverse leakage current remains unchanged or even lowered. We use the Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures (AMPS) [1] device simulation tool to study this phenomenon and show that the structures can provide a new approach to producing Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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