Probing the Nature of Intermittently Stuck Bits in Dynamic RAM Cells

A new method is presented and demonstrated to quantify the leakage currents in Intermittently Stuck Bits (ISB's) in SDRAM's, which have been exposed to neutron or proton irradiation. It is argued that these ISB's are caused by Single Particle Displacement Damage Effects (SPDDE's), in the form of displacement damage complexes comprising one or more damage clusters. The leakage current histories of ISB's are compared with a model of the behavior of the displacement damage complexes believed to cause the ISB's.