Discrete devices including EAPROM transistor and NVRAM memory cell with edge defined ferroelectric capacitance, methods for operating same, and apparatuses including same

摘要

A memory cell includes a charge amplifier having a gate adjacent to a channel region coupling source and drain regions, a digitline coupled to one of the source and drain regions, a ground lead coupled to the other of the source and drain regions, a ferroelectric capacitor coupled to the gate, and a wordline coupled to the ferroelectric capacitor. Advantageously, the charge amplifier can be a CMOS transistor. Preferably, the gate is coupled to the ferroelectric capacitor by polysilicon, the junction formed at the gate has an intrinsic capacitance, and the capacitance of the ferroelectric capacitor is based on the magnitude of the intrinsic capacitance. Alternatively, the gate is coupled to the ferroelectric capacitor by polysilicon, the junction formed at the gate has an intrinsic capacitance, and the physical size of the ferroelectric capacitor is based on the magnitude of the intrinsic capacitance. In this case, the thickness of a ferroelectric material layer in the ferroelectric capacitor can be based on the magnitude of the intrinsic capacitance. A memory cell array, a memory module, and a processor based system can all be fabricated from this memory cell. Methods for reading data out of and writing data into the memory cell are also described.